We All Meet Again
by Darkeiya
Summary: Four years have passed. A diabolical plot is formed. Change has happened upon them in one way or another.
1. Conflict on a Cold Morning

**DISCLAIMERS: I own nothing relating to Sonic the Hedgehog. The authoress Renneh (user I.D. 801621) created the original idea for this story.**

**PAIRINGS: Since listing the pairings in this story seems to put off readers, I have decided to pull the listed pairings from the front page. They will be listed at the last part of the last chapter, although by then the pairings will have become quite obvious. Thank you for bearing with me.**

**MISCELLANEOUS: This story takes place four years into the future. As such, it would only make sense that the cast has aged. Tack four years onto everyone's current ages and you're good to go. **

* * *

**Chapter 1: Conflict on a Cold Morning **

* * *

_Crunch, crunch._

Wave the Swallow paid no heed to the crunch of ice crystals beneath her red shoes as she strolled down the snow-covered sidewalks of Metal City. She was more focused on keeping her load balanced-- her Extreme Gear, the Type-W, was held securely under her left arm, while she held two shopping bags in her right hand. The early morning air was crisp and chilly, as all winter mornings are. The sun was just beginning to peek out above the horizon, making some of the icicles on the rooftops sparkle.

Today was the first time Wave had been in Metal City for months. Jet, Storm and she were currently living in Babylon Garden, and as such, only came down every couple of months or so, and only with good reason. In this particular case, Wave had traversed to the city for Christmas shopping, as it was that season again.

Even though four years had passed, she hadn't really changed in appearance. Perhaps she'd grown a few inches, or she might not have... Wave wasn't really keeping track. Her feathers were still the same fuchsia color, and she still wore her trademark outfit-- white pants with purple flame patterns, white top, a white bandana, and her necklace with the red miniature computer-orb attached.

Wave had decided to go shopping early so she could return before Jet and Storm woke up, giving her ample time to hide their presents. She frowned when a ray of sunlight caught her eye-- at this rate, the two would be up before she got back.

_'Well, that's why we have Extreme Gear,'_ Wave thought, her frown quickly becoming a smile.

Wave single-handedly slipped her orange-lensed sunglasses over her cobalt eyes. Bending over precariously, so as to not drop her shopping bags, she set her Extreme Gear down in front of her. The board began to hover over the concrete merely seconds after being set on the ground. Wave set the bags on the front of the Type-W, and was just about to step onto it when she was quite suddenly grabbed roughly around the waist.

Before the swallow knew what was happening, she had duct taped wrapped around her beak, and the attacker, still holding onto her, had leapt onto her Extreme Gear and was speeding off. Wave struggled to get out and tried to scream, but her attempts were thwarted by the tight hold and duct tape. Fear beginning to overtake her, she looked up at her captor, trying to see who it was.

All she could see was blood-chilling, ruby red eyes.

* * *

The Fastest Thing Alive, better known as Sonic the Hedgehog, caught his breath as he walked up the steps to his house. He had just finished his 400-mile morning run, and the air had been exceptionally brisk. Many people said this built character, but for Sonic, it was nothing special. Not even the cold could keep up with the Blue Blur when he was running.

After checking to make sure his bundle was unharmed from his run, Sonic hid it behind his back and entered his house, the warm air inside wrapping around him as he closed the door. As soon as he did that, the cobalt-blue hedgehog's nose met a delicious aroma. He recognized it instantly as his favorite food-- chili dogs, and not just the kind you get at the ballpark. These chili dogs were cooked by possibly the greatest chef in the world, at least in Sonic's opinion. This chef was none other than his girlfriend, Blaze the Cat.

Two years previous, Blaze had returned through a one-way portal that Tails had created, much to everyone's extreme surprise. The young fox had figured out a way to completely stabilize the energies of the Sol Emeralds and the Chaos Emeralds, so that nothing of epic proportions-- particularly, the ripping apart of universes-- would happen if they came into contact in the wrong way. He had been intending to test it out with the Chaos Emeralds by traversing once again to Blaze's world with said relics, but the cat had come through first with the Sol Emeralds. Since that time, Blaze had lived with Sonic, keeping the Sol Emeralds with her, while Tails made further adjustments to the portal in order to make it two-way.

A year after that, Sonic had eventually worked up enough courage (and dignity) to take Blaze out to dinner. Cream put it best, saying that it was "love at first date". Since that first date, the purple cat had gradually opened up more and more. As one might imagine, Amy was extremely jealous, and refused to talk to either Sonic or Blaze for weeks. It was only now that she was starting to get over it.

Blaze, who was taking a plate of chili dogs towards the table, looked up as Sonic walked into the large kitchen. She smiled warmly. "Finally returned, have you?"

"Well, that isn't a very nice way to say 'good morning'. I brought you flowers, just to hear that?" Sonic jokingly asked, pulling out the bundle from behind his back. It was a bouquet of red roses.

"Chili dogs and roses. How romantic," Blaze gave a quiet chuckle at her own joke.

"Mm-mm. Wouldn't want it any other way!" Sonic exclaimed, rushing over to the table in a flash. The lavender cat shook her head, still smiling, as she walked over to the table with the plate in her white gloved hands. She had taken her time making those chili dogs, and she didn't want them going to waste by spilling them on the hardwood floor.

In terms of aging, Sonic and Blaze had grown height-wise, and that was about it. Sonic still wore the same gloves and gold-buckled red shoes, and Blaze still wore her trademark outfit as well-- purple coat, white pants, magenta shoes, and the red glossy hair tie.

"So, how was your run this morning?" Blaze asked, after swallowing the bite of chili dog that was in her mouth.

Sonic, who had just swallowed two chili dogs in succession, was about to answer when there was a loud pounding on the front door. He exchanged a slightly weirded-out glance with Blaze before getting up from his seat and going to see who it was. Sonic opened the door to see a green hawk and a considerably larger albatross. More specifically, Jet and Storm, both of whom were holding their Extreme Gears.

The moment Sonic was able to see them, Storm grabbed the hedgehog by his quills with a large, orange-gloved hand and lifted him into the air so they were eye to eye.

"Alright, you little punk! Where is she?!" he yelled to the somewhat stunned hedgehog.

"Storm! Storm!" Jet exclaimed. "Put him down!"

"S-Sorry, Boss," Storm stammered, calming down a bit, but still looking impatient, even a little angry. He dropped Sonic onto the ground, earning an "Oof!" from the hedgehog. Blaze, curious of what was happening, quickly came to the doorway as Sonic got to his feet. Surprisingly, he wasn't fazed by Storm's yelling.

"Hey, guys! Long time, no race!" he greeted them, quite cheerfully. "A little chilly out there, isn't it? Come on in, why don't you?"

Jet and Storm nodded, following Sonic into the house. As the hedgehog led them to the den, Blaze stayed close to his side. Having never seen the two birds before, she was rather intimidated.

"Sonic," she hissed in his ear, "Who in the name of the Sol Emeralds are these people?"

"Don't worry, Blaze," Sonic whispered back. "They're old friends of mine."

Blaze nodded her understanding, but she looked no less relaxed. In the den, there were two blue couches, facing one another across a dark brown coffee table. Jet took a seat on one couch, and Storm, looking rather impatient, sat next to him. Sonic leaned back on the other, propping his feet up on the coffee table. Blaze sat next to Sonic, having decided to stay close to him.

"So, then. Jet, Storm, this is Blaze the Cat. Blaze, this is Jet the Hawk and Storm the Albatross," the hedgehog introduced, waving a hand at each person in turn.

Whatever amount of patience Storm had, he ran out of it at that moment. He slammed his mammoth fists on the table, rattling the empty mug that was on it. "Enough chit-chat, Sonic. Wave's missing and all the humans around here told us they saw a hedgehog take her!"

Blaze immediately picked up on what the albatross was saying, and she didn't like it. "Are _you_ implying _Sonic_ would capture this... 'Wave' character?" she growled, glaring at the two Rogues with her amber eyes.

It was evident that Jet believed the same as his right-hand man. "Can't handle the truth, can you... Blaze, was it? Don't like the idea that Sonic is capable of crime?"

"Leave her alone, Jet," Sonic said, in an attempt to curb a fight he could sense was coming. "I didn't take Wave. You and I both know I'd never do such a thing."

The hawk ran a gloved hand through his emerald-green head feathers. He said nothing, but his contempt-filled glare at the hedgehog betrayed his thoughts.

"I would like to help you guys find her, though," Sonic continued. "I mean, the more people looking for Wave, the better of a chance that we'll find her, right?"

Blaze looked at Jet, and then at Sonic in surprise. "You are actually going to _help_ them? Sonic, they just accused you of something you didn't do!"

Sonic leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Once, you accused me of something I didn't do. I forgave you then, didn't I?"

The lavender cat bit down on her bottom lip, her purple-tipped tail flicking in thought. After a slight pause, she sighed, and then nodded. "Very well. Sonic can help you, Jet and Storm. But I'm coming with you."


	2. Differences in Temperature

**Chapter 2: Differences in Temperature **

* * *

Tails was in heaven. His lips had already met the most delicious-looking, droop-worthy chocolate doughnut, and its rich taste filled his mouth. He savored every bit of it as he chewed it, licking his lips after he swallowed. He was just about to take another large bite when...

_**CRACK!**_

The young fox awoke suddenly. His blue eyes moved back and forth wildly, seaching for the doughtnut, until it hit him that the delectable sweet was just a product of his imagination. Tails looked down at where the doughnut had been-- he'd been chewing on his pillow.

"It was only a dream... only a dream," he whispered to himself, closing his eyes again. "Shoot. That was such a good doughnut, too."

Tails had almost fallen back asleep when...

_**CRACK!**_

The fox groaned and rubbed his eyes. He reluctantly pushed himself out of his warm bed and walked over to his window.

_'Whatever Sonic needs me for, it'd better be a good reason for waking me up,'_ Tails thought irritably as he moved the curtains, spilling sunlight into the room. Tails squinted his eyes from the bright light, the sun from the window already warming up a bit of his fur, as he looked outside. Not seeing anybody, he let the curtain fall back and turned to get back to bed. He nearly jumped out of his skin when a rock hit his window, producing the loud _**CRACK**_sound that had woken him up. Tails quickly turned back, moved the curtain over again, and opened his window. He looked down to see Cream, who was tossing a rock up and down, catching it in her hand only to toss it again.

"Good morning, sleepy head!" the rabbit called up to him, a smile on her face.

Tails rubbed his eyes again and groggily smiled back. "G'morning, Cream... what time is it?"

Cream flapped her large ears, using them to fly up to his window. Her expression looked urgent now. "Let's see... it's ten in the morning! Tails, we were supposed to leave for Sonic and Blaze's house an hour ago!"

Tails' eyes widened. "Oh no! I'm _so_sorry I forgot, Cream! I'll be out in a second, I just have to get ready!"

The fox quickly shut his window, keeping the curtains open. He thrust his hands into his white gloves, and quickly put on his red and white sneakers. To finish it off, he grabbed his pair of grey goggles, throwing them around his neck. He ran a comb through his three bangs just once and sprinted down the stairs and hallway to his front door, pausing to grab a banana from the kitchen. As he ran out the door, Tails flipped the switch to turn on security, and then slammed his front door shut. The fox stumbled down the porch, and almost ran into Cream.

The rabbit giggled. "Sorry about making you rush, Tails. It's actually nine, not ten. I just didn't want us to be late, like last week."

Tails relaxed instantly. "Nah, it's alright, Cream. I do tend to run a little late sometimes, don't I?"

He adjusted his goggles so they were now on his forehead, and then bit into his banana. Cream nodded as the two began to head for the Mystic Ruin train station, for their weekly Saturday visit with Sonic and Blaze.

Tails hated to admit it, but in the past four years, he'd fallen head over heels for Cream. Even as she babbled on, he couldn't help but look at her. She had donned her EX World Grand Prix outfit-- an orange tank-top with matching soccer shorts, orange and yellow sneakers, the standard white gloves, and even the orange visor. Cream also had a yellow purse with her today.

"Earth to Tails! Come in, Tails!" Cream yelled, waving a hand in front of his eyes.

"Huh? What?" Tails mumbled, shaking his head as he snapped back to reality.

"You sort of zoned out there for a minute. Is it too warm?" Cream grabbed his hand and took off, dragging Tails with her. "C'mon! We're not that far from the train!"

It took only a minute to reach the station. Cream and Tails ran up the stairs, through the closing train doors, and into the car. The rabbit quickly sat down, pulling Tails down next to her as the train began to pull out of the Mystic Ruins station. She sighed happily, her ears fluttering slightly as a byproduct of the air-conditioning.

"See? It's nice and cool in here," she said.

"It's alright, Cream," Tails said, laughing a bit. "I'm fine. Really!"

Cream didn't seem to be listening. She pulled out a water bottle from her purse, unscrewed the cap, and pushed the bottle into his hands.

"Drink it, Tails," she said, worry evident in her voice. "I don't want you to get a heat-stroke."

The fox was about to protest, as he wasn't even thirsty. One look at Cream's concerned face, though, and Tails knew he couldn't defy. The rabbit watched him carefully as he drank the water. That was one of the things he liked about Cream, that she was always thinking of others' well-being. Tails couldn't deny, though, that she had her times when she was a tad too worrisome.

After taking a long enough draught which he hoped would satisfy Cream, Tails screwed the cap back onto the top and handed the bottle back to her. The two preteens sat silently in their seats, watching the blur of the passing scenery as the train rushed by.

_"Attention passengers," _the conductor announced, his voice barely audible due to the poor quality of the P.A. system. _"Our next stop is Station Square. Please wait until the train has come to a complete stop before standing up."_

"Now where's the fun in that?" Tails asked, eliciting a laugh from Cream. The squeal of the train's wheels as they slowly ceased their motion on the track could be heard throughout the train. Eventually, the doors opened with a hiss. Cream and Tails exited the train, to be greeted by a sharp breeze of chilly air and snow crunching beneath their shoes. Normally, it wasn't that unusual for Station Square to be colder than Mystic Ruins, but this was an extreme difference.

"Gosh, it's cold!" Cream said, rubbing her bare arms.

Tails nodded, his breath creating clouds in the air. "Yeah, that's weird. It's nowhere remotely near the freezing mark back in Mystic Ruins."

The two of them shivered in the cold beneath the falling snowflakes as they waited at the bus stop. Fortunately, they didn't have to wait very long before the bus that went straight to Sonic and Blaze's street arrived. Cream and Tails, not wanting to be out in the freezing weather any longer, quickly made their way onto the bus.

Surprisingly, the transport was quite empty, save for one certain Amy Rose. Said hedgehog was wearing her usual attire-- red sun dress, running boots, and headband-- along with a blue jacket. Cream immediately walked over and took a seat next to her, motioning for Tails to follow.

"Oh! Hello, Cream! Hello, Tails!" Amy greeted in an overtly cheerful voice, nodding at each of them as they sat down.

"Hi, Amy," Cream said. "Where are you going?"

"Shopping. How about you two?" Amy asked.

"We're going to Sonic's house," Tails answered. He immediately gave himself a mental slap in the head. Amy's expression darkened at his words.

"Sonic and _Blaze's_ house, you mean," Amy mumbled sadly. Lately, whenever either Sonic or Blaze's names were mentioned, she became very depressed all of a sudden.

"Oh, Amy, we're very sorry," Cream said, placing a gloved hand on her shoulder.

"No... no, no," Amy whimpered, her bottom lip quivering as a sob threatened to escape. "It's alright, Cream. There's no need to be apologizing."

"Oh, Amy, please don't cry!" Tears began to fill Cream's eyes. "It makes m-me cry..."

Tails briefly paled at seeing the two girls tear up. The last thing he wanted right now was to be stuck on the bus with two hysterical girls. He racked his mind desperately for something, anything, that would divert their attention.

"Say, Cream! Where are Cheese and Chocola? I notice you didn't bring them," the fox asked quickly. He gripped his two tails tightly, silently praying that neither Amy nor Cream would need a shoulder to cry on within the next few seconds.

Cream wiped away any tears that might have been present in her brown eyes. "Oh, I was wondering when you'd ask. They're at home, the two of them slept in today."

"Why? Did they eat too much fruit?" Amy asked out of curiosity.

"Well, actually..." Cream began.

_'Phew!'_ Tails thought, brushing his bangs from his eyes as he listened to the new conversation. _'That was a close one!' _

* * *

_SNAP._

A pair of amethyst eyes shot open at the sharp sound of a snapped twig. Knuckles stood up from his reclined position in front of the dully gleaming Master Emerald, having sensed somebody's presence. He growled slightly, his mind immediately settling on only one person who would dare show up here. He turned around to face the large gem, and his suspicions were confirmed-- a frost-white bat was sitting on top of the Master Emerald with her legs crossed and dangling off the side.

"Well, hello there, Knuckles," Rouge said, waving at him with a seductive smile. "Long time, no see!"

Knuckles clenched his massive fists. "What are you doing back here on Angel Island? Finally decided to show your face again?"

"Aww, c'mon, Knucklehead. It's only been about... four years, give or take a few months." Rouge shrugged, having not kept exact track of the date.

While he raced to think of a reply, Knuckles took another look at the 22-year-old bat. Even though four years had indeed passed, he was still slightly surprised at her new attire-- white sneakers with a pink stripe down the middle, similarly designed white gloves with pink edges and a gold ring around the wrists, a black top covered by a long winter jacket, and black pants with white Hawaiian flower designs along the bottom. If it were possible, she looked better than before. The red echidna himself hadn't changed at all, except having gotten slightly taller, but he still wore the same shoes and gloves.

Rouge frowned at the sun. "It sure is warm up here. It's freezing back at Night Babylon!"

The comment about the weather made Knuckles snap out of his thoughts. "Huh? Wha? Oh, yeah. That's because of the Master Emerald's energy," he mumbled. He silently reprimanded himself for letting his mind stray. Rouge noticed that a slight red tinge had formed on his muzzle. She opened her mouth to inquire why he was blushing, but was cut short by a powerful blast of wind, which knocked her backwards-- off the Master Emerald. Knuckles, too, was buffeted by the gust, but he was thrown against the giant gem. Some of the wind was expelled from his lungs at the impact, but it wasn't enough to stop the echidna from seeing what had created the blast.

"Ouch!" Rouge yelped from the other side of the Master Emerald. "Hey, Knuckles! Come be a man and help me up!"

The only reply she received was the sound of running footsteps. Knuckles had taken off down the steps to the shrine.

"GET BACK HERE!" the echidna roared as he chased the intruders-- two figures on Extreme Gear, moving too fast for him to make out any real details. They had most likely taken a shortcut through Angel Island in order to get to Station Square, but no matter the circumstance, Knuckles was running fast enough that he had almost caught up to them. Before he could grab one of them, though, the two leapt off the edge of the island, spiraling downwards expertly towards the water below. Knuckles snarled in frustration as he watched them, even as they took over over the water, heading in the direction of the nearby Station Square.

Curious as to where the two had come from, the 20-year-old echidna looked back over his shoulder, turning around completely in order to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. His eyes weren't lying, though, for floating less than four thousand feet above was what remained of Babylon Garden. While seeing the floating island perplexed him-- how had it gotten here, anyway?-- it certainly answered his question as to who the intruders were.

"What are you doing?" Rouge yelled, reaching Knuckles with a couple of flaps from her wide, black wings. She landed down next to him, about to chew him out for leaving a lady behind.

"Of course," he mumbled to himself. "Babylon Rogues."

"The Babylon Rogues? You mean that thieving trio of birds?" she asked.

"How do you know about them? Do you guys meet up every Friday night to go steal expensive jewelry together or something?" Knuckles snorted.

"No!" Rouge spat. "Being a government agent, it's required that I know everything about everybody! And drop it about the thief business already. No harm comes from a little five-fingered discount every now and then. Surely a fellow freelance treasure hunter would agree, would he not?"

The echidna gritted his teeth, having almost reached his nerve's end. Before he could yell something he would most likely regret, Rouge continued. "Now, what did you say about the Babylon Rogues?"

"Well, I just saw two of them on their flying planks. I bet that's what that blast of wind was. Now, c'mon! Let's go see what they're doing!" With that said, Knuckles turned and leapt off the side of Angel Island. As he fell seaward, his long red dreadlocks trapped the air beneath them, allowing him to perform his prized gliding maneuver. He didn't even look back as he glided after the two.

"What? Are you crazy?!" Rouge yelled at the echidna. "WHAT ABOUT THE MASTER EMERALD, DAMNIT!"

If Knuckles had heard Rouge, then he had chosen to not acknowledge it. Rouge sighed and rolled her eyes. "Well, whatever. He was lucky I wasn't here to steal it from him this time." She began to follow him, but thought better of it, and ran back towards the Master Emerald. The bat grunted as she lifted the giant emerald into her arms. The Master Emerald may have been light for its appearance, but carrying it still required enough exertion to slow one down.

"I might as well do that jerk a favor and bring it along for him," Rouge said to herself, haphazardly making her way back to Angel Island's edge.

* * *

"Good-bye, Amy!" Cream called as she got off the bus. Tails nodded, waving as he followed Cream.

Amy smiled and waved back at them. She watched them return to the cold until the now nearly-empty bus began to pull away from the stop. As the vehicle rolled through the snowy streets, the pink hedgehog buried her face in her hands, silent sobs beginning to shake her body. Tails' earlier attempt to change the conversation hadn't changed the thoughts that were flowing through Amy's mind. She just hadn't spoken on it again, because it would have sounded off topic.

_'Why? Why did Sonic have to pick that stupid cat over me?'_ Amy thought as hot tears welled up in her green eyes. _'It wasn't fair!'_

Her tears escaped, trickling down her face in a small stream, as she remembered what she had deemed the worst day of her life.

---

_It was a bright and sunny day, the kind of day so enjoyable that you want to photocopy it 365 times so you can call it a year. 15-year-old Amy Rose skipped happily down the streets of Station Square, humming an upbeat tune as she turned a corner. In her hands she held a small box, wrapped in paper colored as cheerful a blue as the skies above. As she made her way down the street, Amy counted the houses mentally. 43, 44, 45, 46... and finally, she found Sonic's house, number 47. She calmed herself down and walked up the steps, up to the blue door. She took a second to run a hand through her pink bangs, making sure they hadn't been ruined by her skipping, and then rang the slightly weathered doorbell. Amy was nearly trembling with excitement as she patiently waited for her love, Sonic, to answer the door. After a couple of seconds with no response, she knocked._

_"Hey, Sonic? Come and open the door. I got you a present," she called, knocking on the door with her knuckles again._

_Still no response. Amy frowned, getting impatient with the lack of reply. She reached for the doorknob and twisted, finding that it was unlocked. She took a step inside Sonic's house, and then another, silently closing the door behind her._

_'Well, then, Mister. A surprise present it is!' Amy thought, her impatience becoming joy as she made her way down the hall. Coming up to the kitchen, she poked her head inside to see Tails with his back turned to her. He was wrapping something else up-- evidently Amy wasn't the only one who had planned a surprise present for the blue hedgehog's birthday today._

_"Hello, Tails!" Amy said, remaining in the doorway. "Where's Sonic? I got his birthday present!"_

_Tails' ears pricked, and he quickly turned around. The young fox gave a sigh of relief. "Oh, Amy! It's just you... geez, you scared me. Sonic's up in his room right now--"_

_"Okay, thanks! I'll just go give it to him right now!" Amy said, turning away from the kitchen, and walking in the direction of Sonic's room, which was further down the hall._

_"Amy, wait! No! I don't... He'll be out in a minute!" Tails called after the pink hedgehog. However, Amy wasn't listening. She had reached Sonic's (unsurprisingly) blue bedroom door. She singlehandedly turned the doorknob slowly, and peered in through the crack in the door. All big entrances had to start out subtle for best effect, or so Amy thought, and this was going be a big entrance. It would be the one she dreamed about constantly-- the entrance where she'd come in, and Sonic would pull her into a hug, thanking her for coming._

_Her daydream came to an abrupt halt when she spotted Blaze, facing the door. Amy almost flinched, thinking she'd been seen, but realized that Sonic was in there as well, standing right by the door. The two were having a discussion of some sort. Amy's green eyes widened with confusion-- what was Blaze doing in Sonic's room? She leaned closer to the crack in the now ajar door, straining her ears so she could hear their conversation. It would end up becoming something that she terribly wished she had never heard in the first place._

_"But Sonic, you can't forget about Amy. When will you tell her this?" Blaze asked._

_"I'll tell her right now. You heard Tails down there just a bit ago-- she's with him," Sonic said. "I'll just go up to her, take a deep breath, and tell her. 'Amy, I'm sorry, but Blaze and I... we're together. I do love you, Ames, but like a sister-brother type of love. I hope you understand'."_

_Everything slowed to a crawl at that moment for Amy. She gasped, relinquishing her hold on the doorknob and also dropping her present. The box landed on the wooden floor with a loud thud, attracting the attention of both the occupants in Sonic's room. Amy just stood there, shock written all over her face, as Sonic opened the door completely, Blaze right behind him. Both of them looked quite surprised that she was right there._

_"Amy?" Blaze asked._

_Amy couldn't say anything. Her breath got shaky, and her vision swam with quickly-forming tears. She quickly turned, running back down the hall and towards the front door, as tears began to spill out of her eyes._

_"Amy, I... I'm sorry!" Sonic called after her. A second later, his front door slammed shut so hard that it could be heard all around the house._

---

As the bus slowed to a stop, Amy gave a shaky sigh and stood up from her seat. She stepped off the bus, immediately greeted by the sound of snow crunching beneath her boots and a sharp chill hitting whatever parts of her uncovered by clothing. The Station Square Shopping Mall, Amy's intended destination, was only a block away from this stop. She adjusted her jacket and was about to start her small trek when she was shoved aside quite roughly, receiving a mouthful of snow. Spitting out the snow, Amy grumbled about how rude people were, and got to her feet, only to be knocked aside yet again. The pink hedgehog was thoroughly irritated by now, and got to her feet yet again. 

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE... going?" Amy's anger turned to confusion. Knuckles and Rouge had apparently been the ones who had knocked her over. It made sense, seeing as how Rouge was a short distance behind Knuckles. What confused Amy was not that they weren't fighting, nor that there was a trail of turbulence to their side that they were evidently following-- although that did perplex her somewhat-- but that Rouge was carrying the Master Emerald. Amy shook off her stupor and ran to catch up with them. She managed to overtake Rouge easily, shooting a glare at her female rival as she passed.

"Knuckles?" Amy yelled, barely able to keep up with Knuckles' pace. "What the heck are you running for? And why is Rouge with you?"

"We're trying to catch up with Jet and Storm," Knuckles replied as he ran. He growled with frustration as he saw the turbulence next to him fading rapidly. "I just wish I could run faster in this snow, because they're on their Extreme Gear. We can't even see them any more, and at the rate we're going, we'll never catch up to them!"

Amy took this in. "Yeah... okay. But why's Rouge following you?"

"I don't know!" Knuckles yelled. The three of them rounded a corner and followed the now almost barely visible turbulence down the street.

"Luckily for you guys, at least the snow got pushed out of the way by the turbulence," Amy pointed out at the small "valley" in the snow next to them. Knuckles only gave a grunt in reply, still keeping up his fast pace. Rouge gave no acknowledgment whatsoever, too preoccupied with remaining airborne whilst carrying the Master Emerald. As they quickly approached another corner, the bat spoke up.

"I don't know if I'm right or not, but isn't this the same way to Sonic's house?" Rouge asked.

Amy looked around for a moment, still running, and realized that Rouge was right. The next corner would be the street where Sonic and Blaze's house was located... She halted quite suddenly. Rouge blew past, narrowly dodging Amy, still carrying her cargo.

"Out of the way, hon! I don't want to barrel into you again!" the bat snapped.

"I can't go down there! I'll have to check it out some other time, Knuckles!" Amy called after the two, who showed no signs of stopping as they rounded the next corner. Amy growled in anger at having run so far from the Station Square Shopping Mall, and turned around. She began to walk back towards her intended destination, when she was quite suddenly pushed to the ground for the third time in that hour. Amy tried to get up, but she felt a shoe pressing into her back, keeping her sprawled face down on the snow. Her arms were pulled behind her back and tied together swiftly. Five seconds later, her ankles were also bound.

Amy was roughly flipped over onto her back, her gasp silenced by a strip of duct tape put on her mouth. A pair of cold arms wrapped themselves around her and picked her up. Amy stared in a mixture of awe and fear at her captor. It was...


	3. Captivity and Interrogation

**Chapter 3: Captivity and Interrogation**

* * *

Wave groaned slightly, eyes closed, as she stirred. What a horrible dream that had been, getting captured while out Christmas shopping. And those blood-red eyes were so chilling, even for a nightmare, that they made the swallow shudder as she lay there in the soft, comfortable safety of her bed. Wave opened her eyes just a crack, but this was more than enough to let blinding light into her unready pupils. Wave immediately squeezed her eyes shut.

_'Wait... I don't hear my alarm going off. And it's too early for this kind of light. I don't think that was a dream.'_

Wave raised her left arm above her eyes as she opened them. Her stiff arm cast a shadow over her eyes, allowing her to slowly adjust as she found herself staring straight at an orange wall. Her suspicions becoming confirmed, the swallow exerted a lot of effort to sit up. She hissed slightly as a sharp pain made itself known in her right arm. Her eyes now fully adjusted to the light, Wave took a look around the room.

She was currently sitting on a circular bed, which was covered with a light orange blanket. On the edges were multiple fuzzy pink pillows, laid down in such a manner that they were like a fence, to keep Wave in the bed. The room itself was also circular, with orange walls and a pink carpet, which in turn was partly covered by a light orange shag rug. Attached to the walls were three orange lamps. Directly to her right was another bed, identical to the one she was on. To the left was a dark orange door which was small enough that it could only have been a closet. Across from Wave's bed was a transparent pink desk, where her Type-W, her wrench, and a pack of tarot cards sat. To the right of the other bed, there were two doors, side by side. The door to the left was silvery, contrasting greatly with the color scheme of the room, and the door to the right was colored hot pink. The swallow took note of the fact that there were no windows.

"In the name of Babylon Garden, where am I?" Wave asked herself. "Either way, whoever owns this place sure does like pink and orange."

The swallow pushed herself off the side of the bed, knocking one of the pink pillows to the floor. She took no heed, instead grabbing her wrench from the table. Now feeling a bit safer, with a weapon of sorts in her hands, she headed over to the two doors. Wave looked over the door to the left, figuring that it would probably be the exit, but found that it had no doorknob. She searched all over, but to no avail. Wave growled in frustration, abandoned the metal door, and turned to the door to the right. This one, to her relief, had a silvery doorknob. She twisted it and opened the door smoothly, revealing a hallway.

Curiosity taking the better of the swallow, Wave stepped through the doorway and walked down the hall. It was only a couple of feet long, and seemed to continue the orange-walled, pink-carpeted theme of the other room. At the end was another pink door. She opened this door to find a bathroom-- an orange-walled, pink-tiled bathroom. Even the very objects within the room shared the same color scheme, with two pink sinks, two orange toilets, and two orange shower heads. It was enough to make a person sick of the two colors.

"Let me correct myself," Wave muttered, closing the bathroom door and walking back to the main room. "Whoever owns this place sure is_obsessive_ of pink and orange!"

Returning to the main room, Wave took her battered Extreme Gear off the desk, and hopped onto one of the beds. Using her wrench, she began to peel off the outer layers of the Type-W, as she always did when she repaired it. Working on something like this usually helped to get her mind off of things, particularly the fact that she had no clue where she was.

"I don't know how long I'm going to be in here, so I may as well make the most of it," she whispered to herself. She stopped in the middle of unscrewing the back part of her Extreme Gear. "How did I even get here in the first place?"

As she resumed her repair work on the Type-W, the swallow racked through her brain, searching to find some memory, any memory at all of how she had ended up in this room. But try as she did, Wave couldn't remember. All she could recall was being in Metal City as she was abducted.

* * *

"Look, guys, we're going to need a plan to find Wave. We can't leave just this minute," Sonic explained as he sat down at the kitchen table. Jet pulled the opposite chair out and slouched down moodily in it. Storm looked for another chair, but gave up and stood next Jet when he could find none. Blaze, already knowing that there were only two chairs in the kitchen, stood next to Sonic, her purple-tipped tail flicking nervously as she kept her unmoving gaze on the two birds.

"I mean, come on. Do you guys even _have_ any evidence?" Sonic asked.

Jet growled irritably, crossing his arms. "No, we don't have any evidence! All we have is two shopping bags on the street, and what some people said!"

Sonic was about to further explain to the two Rogues why they needed to plan their rescue mission out when there was a knock on the door. He glared at Jet in annoyance and turned to Blaze. "Since I'm a bit busy at the moment, you wouldn't mind answering the door, would you, Blaze?"

Blaze nodded, more than happy to have a reason to get away from Jet and Storm. She slowly walked out of the kitchen, giving Storm a nervous glance as she passed him. The cat hurried to the door when there was another knock, this one sounding more like the pounding of a massive fist. She opened the door to see Knuckles, who had his fist raised to pound the door again. Right behind him was a white bat, whom Blaze didn't recognize, carrying the Master Emerald.

"Oh! Knuckles... and his friend," Blaze guessed, standing aside and opening the door wider for the two. "What is your business here?"

"We were just tailing two people. Jet the Hawk and Storm the Albatross, if you know them," the bat explained, flying right behind Knuckles as he entered the doorway. "And before I forget, my name is Rouge the Bat... world-famous treasure hunter!"

Blaze gave Rouge a small, polite smile as she closed the door. _'Note to self... keep this bat away from the Sol Emeralds.'_

"Since Rouge gave you most of the details, have you seen either of those two?" Knuckles asked. "And if you don't know them, can you at least tell me where Sonic is?"

"Sonic is in the kitchen." Blaze pointed to the first opening on the left, directing the two. Knuckles and Rouge made their way down the hall, and Blaze was about to follow when she heard another-- and much lighter-- knock at the door. She turned back around and opened the door, to see Tails and Cream.

"Hello, Blaze!" Cream exclaimed, immediately running forward and hugging the cat.

"Hey, Cream! Hello, Tails. We weren't expecting you two today. Come in," Blaze said, a smile on her face.

Cream let go of Blaze as Tails walked in, the cat quickly shutting the door behind the two most recent guests. There was enough snow on the floor as it was, there didn't need to be any more.

Ears pricking slightly at the sound of two people yelling insults at one another, Tails looked around a bit as the three made their way to the kitchen. "I... I hope we aren't bothering you guys."

"You certainly aren't," Blaze said, shrugging. "Knuckles, a girl named Rouge, and two birds looking for their friend are here as well." She waved briefly at Sonic as she re-entered the kitchen. Knuckles and Storm, who had obviously been the ones yelling a few seconds ago, had stopped fighting, but were still glaring at one another. Rouge was hovering next to Knuckles, still carrying the Master Emerald.

"Well, looks like the whole gang is here now!" Sonic exclaimed, directing everybody else's attention to the three who had just entered the room.

"That's good. Maybe _now_ we can all look for Wave," Storm said, eyeing Tails and Cream as they walked up to the table.

"I don't think you guys have met Cream yet. Jet, Storm, this is Cream. Cream, this is Jet and Storm. Their friend, Wave, is missing," Sonic hastily introduced, pointing at everyone in turn. "Now, with all that stated, do you guys want to help us find Wave?"

"I'd love to!" Cream said sweetly. She turned to face Jet, Blaze immediately putting a hand on her shoulder in case the hawk tried something. "I'm terribly sorry that Miss Wave is missing, Mister Jet."

"Well then, instead of standing around talking about it, let's get looking for her!" Knuckles growled in annoyance, pounding one of his fists on the kitchen table.

"Shouldn't we get Amy to come along, too?" Tails asked, his two tails idly swishing. "She's part of our group, after all..."

"Sorry, Foxboy, but I don't think she's coming. Knuckles and I passed her earlier, and she wasn't exactly happy to come down the road," Rouge said. Her hands gave out at that moment, resulting in the Master Emerald falling on top of Knuckles' foot. "Whoops!"

Knuckles screamed an obscenity as he pulled his foot out from under the gem. He rubbed the appendage, despite the fact that it was still in his shoe. "Oww! Geez! Watch it, Rouge!"

"Hey, it's not my fault," Rouge shrugged, landing down on the floor. "That rock weighs a ton!"

"You could have least said 'sorry'!"

"You're acting like a five-year-old."

Knuckles pointed at the Master Emerald on the floor. "Do you want me to drop this on your head?!"

"ENOUGH! Just shut the _hell_ up!" Jet screamed, fed up.

The echidna and the bat stopped in the middle of their growing feud, looking at the angry hawk in surprise. The two then looked around at everyone else. Judging from the annoyed expressions on everyone's faces, they had been thinking the same as Jet, except they had chosen not to vocalize it. Knuckles quickly pointed an accusing finger at Rouge.

"Well, it's HER fault for dropping it on my foot in the first place!" he said.

"Excuse me? _My_ fault? I hardly believe it's _my_ fault!" Rouge said, flapping her black wings in annoyance. "You're the one who just left the stupid rock there, unguarded."

"That has nothing to do with it! You dropped it on my foot, so it's--" Knuckles was cut off when Jet got out of his seat and stomped out of the kitchen. A few seconds later, the sound of the front door slamming shut was heard throughout the whole house.

* * *

Amy slowly opened her eyes to find herself sitting in an upright position against the wall of a dark and dank cell. The musty smell hit her nose immediately, and she tried to follow through with the natural reflex motion of gagging. This was not possible, however, as the pink hedgehog had duct tape over her mouth. Her arms and legs were still tied together. In her attempts to wriggle out of the rope, Amy ended up falling onto her side, issuing a muffled grunt as her body collided with the cold cement. 

_'How am I going to get out of this?'_ the pink hedgehog thought to herself, while starting to chew through the tape.

"Well, well. I must say, Metal Sonic certainly did a good job with you!"

Amy turned her head in the direction of the voice. Even in the poor light, there was no mistaking that the figure who was talking was Dr. Ivo Robotnik, or "Eggman" as he was better known. She yelled at him, but it only came out as muffled noises through the tape. The fat man walked over the slightly weathered bars of her cell, curling his gloved fingers around the metal.

"How does it feel, knowing that nobody's going to save you? Hmm, Miss Rose?" Eggman sneered, a smile just visible beneath his bushy orange mustache. "After all, Sonic obviously has no clue that you're missing. Heh heh heh!"

All Amy could do, still chewing rapidly through the tape, was watch Eggman. He folded his hands neatly behind his back as he walked away slowly. The pink hedgehog finally got through the tape. She spat the adhesive out of her mouth and began struggling to sit up.

"What are you up to, Eggman?" Amy yelled at his retreating back.

Eggman glanced over his shoulder at her, still walking. Ignoring her question, he asked, "Where is Sonic?

"Why should I tell you? Maybe I don't know where he is!" Amy spat.

At this, Eggman stopped and turned back around, returning to Amy's cell. He pressed a button on a control display mounted on the wall, and all the bars in the cell retracted into the floor. The human knelt down and cupped the hedgehog's chin in his hand, forcing her to look up at him.

"If you tell me where he is, it's your one-way ticket out of here, and I will leave you alone... forever. My promise. Now, please tell me where your boyfriend is."

At Eggman's last sentence, Amy was hit with with the memory of the day she'd found out about Sonic and Blaze. The blue hedgehog's painful words echoed once again through her mind.

_"Amy, I'm sorry, but Blaze and I... we're together. I do love you, Ames, but like a sister-brother type of love. I hope you understand."_

The return of the memory made her saddened. This sadness began to turn to anger about her current predicament. Eggman was right, Sonic probably didn't even know she was captured, let alone care. If he hadn't gone for that stupid cat, she would have probably already been out of here...

Vengeful feelings began to stew in Amy's mind. Normally she wouldn't have even considered betraying Sonic, but Eggman's choice of words had clearly affected the pink hedgehog's thoughts. She quickly decided what she would reveal. Revenge was beckoning to her, and she accepted what it offered. The vengeance she felt was underscored in the way she answered.

"He's probably home, at Station Square. He lives on a street called Speedway, in house number 47," Amy replied.

"That's a good girl." Eggman grinned and patted Amy on the head. Then he got to his feet and snapped his fingers. The sound of footsteps on cement could be heard, shortly followed by the materializing of two glowing red eyes behind Eggman. The human didn't look at them, but he acknowledged their owner's presence all the same. "Metal! Take her to her room!"

Metal Sonic stepped out from behind his creator. If he could show emotion, Amy thought that he probably would have had an ugly sneer on his face. The robotic hedgehog grabbed Amy roughly, picked her up with surprising ease, then walked away. Seeing as how she was tied up already, not to mention that Metal Sonic had superior strength, the pink hedgehog figured it was pointless to struggle.

As they passed through several corridors, each with doors that had the words "TOP SECRET" painted on them in big, red, cautionary letters, Amy couldn't help but wonder what Eggman kept on the other side of those doors. Metal Sonic continued to walk through the halls, not speaking a word. This slightly confused Amy, as the last time she had seen Metal Sonic, he had been trying to take over the world, and stating that he was the "real Sonic". After the whole incident, he had apparently been deactivated, though. Maybe that was it, Amy reasoned within her mind. While he was offline, Metal Sonic had received a repair job from Eggman to make him more obedient. It was the only thing the hedgehog could think of at the moment that made sense.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Metal Sonic stopped at a silver door without a doorknob. The robot gently set her down and, with a single, swift motion of one of his metal claws, cut through the bindings on her arms and legs. His metallic right hand kept a firm grip on her shoulder to prevent her from escaping as he released her bindings. Still keeping his hold on her, Metal Sonic placed his other hand on what appeared to be a hand-print scanner. The door slid open in a split second, accompanied with a hiss. The robot tossed Amy into the room, and the door slid shut just as quickly. Judging from the beep that emanated through the door, it was locked again. The pink hedgehog didn't take thought to notice this, though-- all she could see was pink carpet.

"Well, if it isn't Amy Rose!"

Amy lifted her head up from the carpeted floor to see Wave, who was lying on one of the two beds. The swallow was on her back, hands clasped behind her head, but she was looking straight at the hedgehog. Amy pursed her lips with slight disgust as she got to her feet, rubbing her wrists where the bindings had been.

"So, I see Eggman captured you as well," she said dryly.

Wave nodded. "Obviously. You know, this is the strangest room I have ever seen. And coming from a thief, I've seen some pretty screwed up places, so that says something."

A snort of laughter escaped Amy as she walked around the circular room, taking in the orange and pink. One thing in particular caught her eye-- the pack of tarot cards that was on the desk. She picked them up and looked through them in interest.

Wave got off the bed and walked over to Amy, looking over the hedgehog's shoulder at the tarot cards. "I see you're into fortune telling?"

Amy looked over at Wave, turning around to face the bird. She arranged the cards neatly back into their deck, and placed the stack back on the pink desk. "Yeah. You can say I've had some experience with them in my days. So, how'd you get here?"

Wave shrugged, walking back to the bed she had been sitting on and plopping down on it. "Me? I just woke up here. I think the doctor injected me with something, though. My right arm's pretty sore, and it's not the kind of pain you get when you sprain something. How about you?"

Amy walked over and sat down on the other bed. "I woke up in a cell. Eggman asked me a couple of questions, and then Metal Sonic brought me here."

"Interrogated, huh? What did you tell him?" Wave asked.

Amy was about to answer, but then she thought twice. She had revealed where Sonic lived. If Sonic were at home, then Blaze would be there too, undoubtedly. Tails and Cream had been riding on the bus... to go to Sonic's house. Also, just before she had gotten captured, Knuckles and Rouge had been following Jet and Storm... and they had all been going in the general direction of the blue hedgehog's residence.

At that moment, the full reality of what she had done hit her. She had told Eggman the location of Sonic's house out of revenge against him and Blaze... but she had completely forgotten about Tails and Cream, Knuckles and Rouge, Jet and Storm. Amy hadn't intended to get them wrapped up in this, but now they could all be dead in a matter of seconds... and it would be her fault. The hedgehog began to cry so hard that she didn't notice Wave get up from her own bed and sit next to her.

"Rose! What did you tell him!" Wave grabbed Amy roughly by the shoulder and shook her.

Having snapped out of her thoughts, but feeling no less guilty, Amy attempted to curb her sobs as she looked up at the older girl. "Wave... I'm sorry..."

"I don't give a shit if you're sorry or not! What did you tell him?!" Wave growled, losing her patience rapidly.

"I... I told Eggman where Sonic was." Amy's vision blurred up with fresh tears.

"Is that all? Sonic's strong! He can fight the doctor off," Wave said.

Amy shook her head. "No, Wave, you don't get it. Sonic's not the only one at his house... Blaze is there, too. So are Tails and Cream... and probably Knuckles, Rouge, Storm, and Jet. They were all on their way there before I got captured. Eggman hasn't attacked for over two years now, and the longer the wait between his attacks, the more power he's gained. By now... E-Eggman could have the p-power to... to k-kill them all!"

The purple swallow took in all this information, staring at the ground as the pink hedgehog started to sob again.

"No. No," Wave said, trying to convince Amy as much as she was trying to convince herself. "You're wrong, Amy."

* * *

Jet gave a loud sigh, the small puff of warm breath becoming visible in the cold air, as he sat on the snow-covered porch stairs in front of Sonic's house. _'Man, Sonic's friends are really annoying. Because of them, now I have a headache! How does he put up with them? Their arguments are worse than Storm and Wave's fights!'_

The hawk put his head in his hands the moment he had finished that thought. Wave... she had said that she would be back by eight. By the time Storm and he had gone to look for the swallow, it was almost nine. That was the thing that worried Jet the most. Wave was very punctual-- if she said she would be back at a certain time, then she would be.

---

_It was extremely early in the morning, perhaps five o'clock. Jet was sleeping peacefully when he felt something warm rub his arm. He slowly opened his eyes to see only darkness. The hawk frowned and grumbled a bit, then turned over onto his left. Shortly after he did that, he felt his other arm being rubbed._

_"Jet, wake up," came a quiet voice._

_Upon hearing his name, Jet opened his eyes again and sat up, running a hand through his ruffled head feathers. He yawned, not used to being awoken this early._

_"Erm... mah. What is it?" he muttered, still half asleep._

_"I'm going down to Metal City for Christmas shopping. Do you want to come with me?" It was Wave. The hawk could just make her form out in the darkness of the room. She was on her knees, on his bed, and right next to him-- it had been her who'd been rubbing his arms._

_"I'm going to have to say... no. It's way too early for me," Jet yawned again. "The sun isn't even out yet. Sorry, Wave."_

_Wave looked away in disappointment. "Alright. I'll be back by eight. If I'm late, then go looking for me."_

_She stood up and leapt daintily off his bed. The swallow walked over to the open door and stopped for a moment, looking over her shoulder._

_"Are you sure you don't feel like coming?" Wave asked, trying one last time._

_"I said no!" Jet growled louder, thoroughly annoyed. Wave, getting the message, quickly walked out of the room. She shut the door behind her, leaving Jet in the darkness. He settled back down in his bed, and quickly fell asleep._

---

_"I said no!"_

Those had been the last three words he'd said to her. Only the Babylonian gods knew where Wave was now... Jet sighed once again, throwing himself back against the steps behind him. He stared up at the dark clouds in the sky above, which only added to his already dismal mood.

"Well, well, well! If it isn't Jet the Hawk! Long time, no see."

Jet jumped up, quickly getting to his feet. He glared at the person who had called to him-- it was none other than Dr. Robotnik. As if on cue, four figures appeared from behind the doctor. The first was a blue robot which somewhat resembled Sonic, glaring at Jet with glowing red eyes. The next robot was red and had the appearance of Knuckles, and its glowing green eyes were also focused on Jet. The third robot was a black hedgehog which probably could have been mistaken for Sonic at a distance, its red-eyed gaze averted elsewhere. The final figure was what Jet thought was a very poor attempt at making a Tails doll. While its form contrasted greatly with the others', it was still slightly eerie, staring at Jet with its blank black eyes.

"What do you want, Eggman?" the hawk snapped.

"Since you wish to cut to the chase, I'll just do the same. Where is Sonic?" he barked.

Sensing a fight was approaching, Jet flicked his wrists, summoning two green feather fans. His gaze narrowed, and he tried to ignore the fact that even though there wasn't a fight yet, he was already outnumbered. "Why should I tell you?"

"Fans? I'm _so_ scared! Is that supposed to be a threat?" Eggman pointed at the hawk. "Shadow, attack!"

Before Jet could react, the black robot had lunged at him and kicked him squarely in his stomach. Screeching in surprise and pain, Jet was sent flying backwards, right into the front door of Sonic's house. The velocity at which he hit the door wasn't enough to break it down, but he certainly made enough of a thump to grab the attention of everyone else in the house.

Sonic opened the door, and quickly ran outside to verify the situation. Blaze, Tails and Cream followed suit, as did Knuckles, Rouge and Storm. Jet growled as he propped himself up on his elbows, getting his chest off of the snowy ground.

"Eggman!" Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles yelled in unison.

The doctor gave a wry smile. "Ah, just the hedgehog I wanted to see!"

Tails cast a quick eye over the three robots behind Eggman. He looked exasperated upon seeing his poorly-created clone. "Bringing Tails Doll into this? You can't possibly be serious, Dr. Robotnik." The fox still remembered when Tails Doll was first revealed-- it had behaved erratically to the point where it ended up breaking down on its own.

The black robot, whom Eggman had referred to as Shadow, chose this moment to jump down from the roof, a smirk on his face. He landed down in front of Eggman and the other robots.

"Watch out for that robot!" Jet warned, getting to his feet and pointing at him. "That one sent me flying with one blow!"

Rouge gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. "That isn't a robot..."

She was right. The black 'robot' that had attacked Jet was, in truth, Shadow the Hedgehog. There was no denying it, with the red streaks down his night-black quills, and his signature air skates on his feet. His ruby red eyes gleamed as his smirk turned into a grin, showing his sharp teeth.

"It's about time somebody noticed," Shadow hissed. His facial features quickly twisted into anger. "Isn't that right, Rouge?"

Upon being acknowledged, Rouge took half a step backwards, a fearful look on her face.


	4. Skirmish of Steel and Flesh

**Chapter 4: Skirmish of Steel and Flesh**

* * *

Knuckles growled, standing his ground. Something wasn't clicking in his gut about Shadow's behavior, and it made the echidna worry... wait, no. It wasn't Shadow that was worrying him, it was the look on Rouge's face. She looked incredibly frightened, as though she would bolt any second. Try as hard as he could, Knuckles couldn't ever recall the bat looking so scared.

"Alright, Eggman! What do you want?" Sonic yelled, jolting Knuckles from his thoughts.

The human didn't answer, instead flashing an evil grin and snapping his fingers. Shadow leapt backwards, landing neatly at Eggman's side. As the black hedgehog did so, Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, and Tails Doll lunged forward. Sonic raised his arms in an attempt to shield himself from Metal Sonic's attack, but yelped in surprise when he felt cold metal claws close around both of his arms. His limbs were jerked roughly above his head, bringing Sonic face to face with his metallic doppelgänger for the briefest of moments. Using the hedgehog's own weight as momentum, Metal Sonic swung him around once and threw him into the middle of the street. Sonic grunted in pain as he landed face-first on the asphalt, effectively knocking all the air out of his lungs. As he tried to get back up to his feet, Metal Sonic turned around and leapt for Sonic once more.

"_Sonic!_" Blaze screamed. She sprinted to Sonic's side, small spurts of flame trailing off from her shoes as she ran.

* * *

Knuckles snarled, quickly getting into a position to stop the looming threat of Metal Knuckles. He quickly brought his arm back and launched a punch. At the rate the robot was approaching, the echidna's fist should have made contact instantly with the metal cranium... but Metal Knuckles vanished right before the punch landed.

"Huh?" Knuckles grunted, looking around in surprise. Robots don't just vanish.

The echidna's attention was grabbed by a loud scream. He spun around to find Metal Knuckles, who had Cream's arms firmly in the grasp of his metal claws. She was struggling to break free from the vice grip, but was failing badly.

"Let her go!" Tails yelled at Metal Knuckles. The young fox was preoccupied with fighting off Tails Doll, who had evidently received updates during his long absence. Said plush was trying to lunge at his throat, the red jewel attached to its forehead glowing dully. It must have had a decent amount of power beneath its fuzzy exterior, for Tails was having a difficult time keeping it at bay.

"Rrrgh. Coward!" Knuckles growled, taking a step forward. Before he could take another step, Metal Knuckles released one of Cream's arms, moving the now free claw to her neck. She yelped in a mixture of pain and fear as the razor-sharp tip began to dig into her neck.

"Come no closer, or the girl is dead," Knuckles' robotic counterpart said, in its monotone voice.

"Don't... do it... Knuckles!" Tails yelled, struggling to keep the Tails Doll away from his neck. The plush was not getting any closer to its target, but it was starting to push Tails backwards, his grey soles' traction barely keeping him from sliding back any further on the sidewalk.

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Knuckles yelled, feeling his patience growing thin.

Tails grunted as he spun his two tails around, managing to build enough force to resist the Tails Doll. He wrapped one hand around the plush's neck and the other around the gem. This seemed to stun the doll, as it suddenly fell limp. Acting quickly, Tails threw it off to the side.

"I don't know! Just... don't let that stupid robot kill her! ACK!" he yelped, ducking as a rock the size of a cupcake whizzed where his head had been. The Tails Doll was floating back towards him already, the red gem gleaming brighter than before. A couple of pebbles from the yard next door gained a red glow, and shot through the air, straight at Tails, who was barely able to dodge them. "I'd help you, but as you can see, I have my hands full right now!"

Knuckles turned back to face Metal Knuckles, his mind working furiously as to how he could save Cream and kick the robot's ass at the same time. The robot had vanished yet again, though. Cream was left trembling, hands and knees on the spot on the lawn where she had been held. Knuckles blinked in confusion-- how did Metal Knuckles keep vanishing? The echidna's eyes widened as he detected a presence only inches away from the back of his neck. He wound up a punch, whirled around and... had to stop himself from punching Storm. Clawing at the ground beneath the albatross's foot was Metal Knuckles. Storm seemed indifferent to the robot, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh, did I scare the red mutt?" Storm asked tauntingly.

Knuckles gritted his teeth and rolled his eyes. "No, but I would like to know why you were so close to me!"

Storm put his hands up in self-defense. "Hey, I was just trying to see if that Cream kid was alive!" He looked at the struggling robot beneath him for a moment. "And since you were so busy yakking with that fox, you didn't even notice this guy sneaking up on you. You owe me one, mutt!"

"Whatever," Knuckles muttered, then ran over to Cream. He held out a hand, and helped her to her feet. "You okay?"

* * *

As the others fought, Rouge stood on the porch, frozen with fear under Shadow's unwavering glare. She couldn't forget the horrible reason as to why Shadow was after her-- at least, the only one she could possibly come up with.

---

_The white bat walked through the empty Club Rouge, the heels of her boots clicking against the tiled dance floor. She made her way to a dark, ash-colored door, which was locked up from the general public. Rouge took a key out, unlocked the door, and walked up the stairwell. She slid the key back into her pocket, and sighed deeply, trying to figure out a way to break the bad news to Shadow._

_Rouge opened the door to her house, which was on the second story of Club Rouge, took off her white boots, and set them by the door before walking into the kitchen. Sitting silently on a wooden stool, gazing at the world through a tinted window, was Shadow. For the past couple of months, he and Rouge had been dating. There had been a couple of hitches in their relationship every now and then, but that was perfectly normal, Rouge had reasoned with herself. After all, nobody said life was a rose garden._

_"Shadow? Can I talk to you for a minute?" Rouge asked, playing nervously with her hands._

_Shadow didn't look at her, but his eyes opened. He hadn't been looking out the window after all, instead he had just been in deep thought. "Sure. Knock yourself out."_

_"Shadow... I've been thinking about this," Rouge started, walking over to him and putting a gloved hand on his black shoulder. "And, well... I find that things just haven't been working out for us."_

_The ebony hedgehog looked over at her, a flicker of confusion in his crimson eyes. "What do you mean?"_

_"I'm sorry, Shadow, but... I'm breaking up with you. I hope we can still be friends," Rouge said._

_Upon hearing this, Shadow averted his gaze from her, instead turning it to the floor and closing his eyes. Rouge couldn't tell if he was upset or not-- his expression was too glacial for her to tell. Silence was the only thing passed between the two for a few minutes. Eventually, Shadow looked back up at her, opening his eyes again._

_"Why." Shadow's voice was flat; he didn't state it as a question._

_"Hm? Oh. Well, Shadow... I-I know that you're working for Eggman," Rouge stuttered, not sure how he'd take it. "And I'm a government agent. The other day, my boss came very close to finding out that I was dating someone working for the enemy... and, well..."_

_"I see. This is all about you, right?" Shadow snapped, obviously upset._

_"I didn't say that," Rouge retorted quickly._

_"Don't worry, Rouge, you can just say it to my face. I understand completely. You were doing another research project on me. Now that you've finished, you have no more use for me. You're throwing me away, just like before!" Shadow growled, getting off the chair and stepping forward._

_Rouge gulped. What he had said was partially true. She was getting paid extra to start another research project on Shadow. If she didn't follow through with this, then she would lose several things that the government allowed her to keep... her house, her job, and all of her jewels. _

_The black hedgehog clenched his fists, now barely inches away from her. The red color of his eyes seemed to fit how angry he appeared. For a split second, it seemed like he would attack her. But all he did was lean forward and hiss in her ear._

_"You'll regret this," he whispered. In a bright flash of what seemed to be Chaos Control, he disappeared._

_---_

Rouge let out a yelp of surprise, stumbling backwards and eventually falling against the porch. Shadow had Chaos Controlled right in front of her, disrupting her thoughts. He walked forward towards her, anger on his face. It appeared that he, too, had remembered the events of that day.

"I'm sorry, Shadow!" Rouge said, too paralyzed with fear to get to her feet.

"'Sorry' isn't going to cut it. _**Chaos Spear!**_" Shadow yelled, firing a controlled blast of lightning energy point-blank at Rouge.

The bat was able to roll out of the way fast enough so that the energy spear didn't skewer her, but she didn't dodge fast enough to avoid it completely. Rouge let out a scream of pain as the membrane of her right wing was pierced by the Chaos Spear. She brought herself to her feet and looked around wildly, frantically searching for a way out, but was unable to see any. Rouge gulped-- hurting Shadow was the last thing she wanted to do right now, even though he had just tried to kill her. Spotting an opening for a fleeting moment, the bat leaped into the air, intending to fly. In her desperation, she had forgotten that her wing had been speared just seconds before. Rouge let out another yelp of pain as she fell to the ground, landing on her stomach. Shadow let out a chilling, evil laugh.

"It appears your time is up," he said, a sneer on his face.

Shadow raised his hand towards Rouge. Bolts of yellow energy were summoned to his fingertips, as he began charging up another Chaos Spear. Rouge looked away and shut her eyes tightly, bracing herself for the final blow. She could hear him begin the vocal command.

"_**Chaos Sp--**_ ARGH!"

Confused, Rouge opened her eyes, just in time to see Shadow landing on his back, as the result of a powerful blast. His head hit the cement walkway hard, effectively knocking him unconscious. She wondered for a heartbeat how that had happened, but this question was immediately answered when she turned around to find Jet behind her, holding both of his Bashyo fans. The hawk glared at Shadow for a moment, and upon confirming mentally that the hedgehog was out for the count, nodded. Then Jet tossed one of the fans to his other hand with the second fan before offering his now free hand to Rouge.

"You okay?" he asked. Rouge took his hand, and he pulled her to her feet.

"Just a bit shaken... thanks," she replied. She looked over at the unconscious hedgehog. "Is Shadow going to be alright?"

Jet chuckled lightly. "Yeah, he'll be fine. I only knocked him back with a gust. It's not like I used that weird spear attack he was about to kill you with. Why are you so worried about him, anyway?"

Rouge shook her head. "It's nothing you'd understand. Okay then... I guess we should be helping the others out!" She smirked and clenched her fists. A slight twinge of pain shot through her wing as she flapped them slightly, but she ignored it.

* * *

Sonic growled in anger as he got back up to his feet. He panted, having lost a considerable amount of energy from this fight. Even after all he had done, it seemed that the only thing he had managed to lay on Metal Sonic was his own blood. Sonic himself, on the other hand, had a large cut down his back which was bleeding lightly in spite of its length. A shorter, but more heavily-bleeding gash had been formed just now across the side of his face, thanks to the robot's claws. In addition to these nicks, along with some minor cuts and bruises in various spots on his body, Sonic was pretty sure that his left wrist had been sprained.

"Have you given up yet? Attacking is useless," Metal Sonic gloated in his mechanical voice. His metal feet clunked on the asphalt as he advanced towards the fallen hedgehog. Blaze jumped in front of Sonic, arms spread out wide, making herself a living shield.

"Don't you dare hurt Sonic!" she yelled at the robot.

"Blaze, Metal Sonic can kill you! Don't worry about me!" Sonic hissed at her.

The lavender cat shook her head. She positioned herself appropriately, winding up a spin as fire began to form around her clenched fists. Blaze let loose with her spin, the fire from her fists winding around her like a vortex until she could not be seen within the flames. She used her Fire Boost ability, propelling herself forward in a rush. She brought a fist forward, ready to attack...

Blaze gasped as she was suddenly halted by metal claws closing around her fist, preventing her from boosting forward any further. Having been caught off-guard, her fiery aura dissipated. Metal Sonic didn't appear to have been harmed by the flames at all. The robot didn't even take a second to look at her as he swung her in a half-circle, releasing her so she flew towards Eggman. The cat let out a grunt of pain as she skidded for a brief distance across the asphalt.

"You'll pay for that!" Sonic yelled angrily at his metallic doppelgänger. He curled into a ball and wound up his signature Spindash move. He released and rocketed towards the robot in front of him, a slight grin on his face. Even despite the fact that his back stung from the cut being stretched in his curled form, his mind felt comfortable in this ever-familiar position. It had never led him wrong before...

... until now. Metal Sonic swung out his leg quickly in the path of the Blue Blur. The hedgehog's grin faded quickly as he realized there was absolutely no way he could move out of the way in time-- one of the few times he cursed his gift of speed. The robot's maneuver worked, and Sonic was sent flying a very short distance into the air. He uncurled in midair, yelping with pain as his back felt the stinging after-effects of metal slammed into an open cut. He landed face-first most unceremoniously at his robotic counterpart's feet, momentarily stunned from the pain. Metal Sonic took advantage of the opportunity and pressed a button on his metallic wrist.

Before Sonic knew what was happening, he was encased in a translucent box made out of what appeared to be glass. If glass it was, then he would have no problem breaking out of it, even if it did earn him a few extra cuts. Sonic wound up a second Spindash, launching himself at the side. Instead of splintering, the side repelled him. He was bounced back against the opposite side of the cube, and dropped once again onto his face. In one last attempt to escape, Sonic pushed himself to his knees and slammed his fists against the transparent sides-- to no avail. He was trapped.

* * *

Wave threw herself backwards onto the bed that she had woken up on, staring up at the orange ceiling. She could hear Amy's loud sobs... and the hedgehog was down in the bathroom. She tried to will away the fluttering feeling in her stomach. 

_'No...'_ she thought, _'Amy's wrong. Jet and Storm can't die... grr! If they do, then I will personally kill Eggman myself!'_

Wave was about to close her eyes when she was picked up around the waist. She looked up to see that her transport, if he could be called that, was a black hedgehog with red stripes on his quills. As though reading her thoughts, he looked down at her, his red eyes devoid of any emotion. Memories flooded back to Wave, and she gasped as she recalled them. That same pair of eyes... it was him. She remembered now-- the darkness of the figure wasn't her memory being bad, it was because that was his quill color! This was her captor.

Before she could comprehend things further, Wave was thrown rather roughly into a cell. The wooden bottom of the cell-- more like a cage, in retrospect-- was old, and somewhat rotted. The black hedgehog began to walk away, retaining his constant silence. Wave got up, ran to the cell bars, and gripped them tightly as she rattled the cage. Even despite their rusted appearance, the iron bars held firm.

"Hey, you jerk! Get back here and let me out!" Wave yelled. Seeing as how the hedgehog ignored her command, the swallow gave a slight growl of irritation. She looked down again at the wooden floor of the cage, wishing she had been able to grab her wrench before she'd been carried out.

"Ah, you must be Wave. It's quite a pleasure to meet you!" said a voice that was all too familiar.

Wave's head shot up to face Eggman... or who she believed was Eggman. His outfit still retained the red-black-yellow scheme, but the colors were all different-- his jacket and boots were black and yellow, while his pants were red. His sunglasses were wider, but the most noticeable change about him was his mustache-- it was no longer orange, but instead silvery. Both of his gloved hands were behind his back.

"Hah! I see you've aged, Eggman!" Wave laughed, smirking at her own comment.

The scientist flashed her a faux innocent smile. "I'm terribly sorry, but I believe you have mistaken me for someone else. To avoid confusion, you may just call me Eggman Nega."

Wave cocked an eyebrow. "You're joking, right?"

"Nope. Sorry." Without warning, 'Eggman Nega' grabbed Wave's right arm through the bars and pulled her right up against them, so her arm was sticking out. He withdrew his other hand from behind his back. To Wave's slight horror, it held a hypodermic needle, filled with a green liquid that had a slightly metallic sheen. Before she could struggle out of his grasp, Eggman Nega plunged the needle in and injected the liquid into her arm. The swallow's eyes glazed over briefly as a cold, hollow feeling filled her right arm. The appendage would have fallen limply back to Wave's side had Eggman Nega not been holding it whilst the needle was still in.

After a few seconds, the human removed the syringe and patted her on the back through the bars. He withdrew a brass key from his coat pocket and unlocked the cell door. Before Wave could make a run for it, Eggman Nega grabbed her by her recently injected arm and led her out of the room. Unable to fight with her weak arm, Wave could do nothing but follow. The two walked down a hall devoid of any decoration, eventually coming to a wooden door on the left side of the corridor. Eggman Nega unlocked the door with the same brass key used to open Wave's cage-- it must have been a skeleton key. Still holding onto the swallow's arm, he entered the room, which contained a massive assortment of weapons. On the other side of the room was a steel door with a card key slot next to it.

"Choose one," Eggman Nega said, waving his hand around at the shelves of weapons.

"What?" Wave asked in surprise. She had never seen so many different weapons all gathered in one place. She reasoned mentally that it must be a storage room.

"I said choose one," the scientist repeated, finally letting go of her. He glanced at Wave and thought to himself for a moment. "How about some throwing knives? You look fit enough to handle them. Or perhaps you would prefer a gun?"

The human nodded to himself, not bothering to wait for Wave's answer, and gathered about twenty small throwing knives, slipping them into a leather pouch. He also grabbed a silver pistol, briefly checking to make sure it was loaded. Then he handed the two items to Wave.

"What am I supposed to do with these? Shoot you or something?" Wave growled, regarding the weapons with disgust.

"Gosh, I hope not," Eggman Nega chuckled. Before the swallow could give him the weapons back, he grabbed her by her same limp arm yet again and dragged her to the steel door. He swiped a red card key through the reader, and the LED turned green, indicating the door was now unlocked. The human opened the door, pushed her out of the storeroom, and quickly shut the door. The slam echoed around the metal walls and ceiling, even being bounced off to some extent by the concrete floor.

Wave cast a brief glance over her surroundings. She was in a hangar of some sort, and judging from the closed separations in the enormous metal 'floor door' in the center of the floor, it was a landing for large vehicles. Beneath the metal floor-door, which unsurprisingly had the Eggman logo imprinted on it, was probably a release chamber into waters, as the numerous puddles around it suggested. A couple of spare robotic parts were strewn carelessly around the hangar, and on smaller floor-doors off to the right, there were about five small underwater mechs, probably escape pods. A pair of glass double doors was at the far end of the hangar, beyond which Wave could barely see the beginnings of a tunnel.

"At last, an exit!" the swallow said to herself, smirking. She broke into a run, but about halfway into the hangar, Wave stopped dead in her tracks, almost slipping on the wet metal. She yelled, her hand flying to her right arm, dropping the two weapons she held. It had felt cold and hollow before, but that feeling was now gone, replaced with a sharp pain. It was as though all the muscles in her arm had tensed up and wouldn't relax, to the point where it was physically painful. The same type of pain traveled quickly, spreading across her chest to her other arm, shooting up her neck to her head, and going down all the way to her feet. Wave was driven to her knees, holding her head in pain, not even noticing that her pant legs were getting wet from the puddle she had fallen into.

"Wha-- wha?" Wave was breathing too hard to speak correctly as her panic increased. Six strips of metal, originating from some spot on her back, began to wrap themselves around her. Terror overtook her as the pain in her body increased immensely. What barely organized thoughts she had screamed that the metal strips would crack her ribs. This seemed to be confirmed, as the swallow felt her chest tightening. Just as the pain grew to its worst, and she felt as though her sanity would snap... it all stopped. The pain quickly subsided, and her hysteria slowly quieted down as well.

Wave leaned over, peering at her reflection in a puddle. She gasped at the bird she found staring back at her from the water. Her feathers were no longer their normal fuchsia color, instead having darkened until they were pure black. Her irises had lightened from their cobalt color to a bone-chilling light blue. At some point, her bandana and glasses had been swapped for a pair of goggles. They would have looked exactly like Jet's goggles if not for their bright red color.

The swallow got to her feet to get a look at the rest of her body. Her regular outfit was gone, replaced by a silver metal suit which started at her feet, and ended just before her neck. Her arms were left bare, revealing that even the pink flame tattoos on her wrist had not been spared from the darkening of her feathers. Looking down at her chest, she discovered the six strips of red metal that, in her earlier panic, she had believed would crush her ribs. Their purpose seemed to be either decoration or anchoring something down. But nothing was held down on her front-- all there was on her chest was the red emblem of Eggman. Unless something was anchored on her back... when Eggman Nega had patted her back. He must have put something there. That and the injection...

Pushing back her fear, Wave began to reach around towards her back, trying to find out if anything was on there. She stopped, as her entire thought process blanked out for the briefest of moments, as though her brain were restarting. She blinked, and a smirk formed on her beak. All her fear left her, and she turned around, reclaiming her weapons from the floor. She slung the pouch of throwing knives over her shoulder.

"Let's see Sonic and his friends try to defeat the Eggman Empire now!" Wave let loose with a small, malice-filled cackle, as she picked up her pistol, cocking the trigger so as to be ready at a moment's notice.


	5. Problems, Predictions, and a Path

**Chapter 5: Problems, Predictions, and a Path**

* * *

Blaze glared at Eggman, with Cream and Tails standing next to her. Rouge ran up next to the two, as did Knuckles, Storm, and Jet in succession. Eggman now faced a line of seven Mobians, adrenaline from their fights still coursing through their veins. Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles, both of whom were slightly worn from the battle but still capable of fighting for hours more, had combined their strength to lift the cage Sonic was trapped in. Tails Doll, who had a couple of minor tears in his plush casing, floated idly in front of Eggman. Shadow was nowhere to be seen by either party as they held their ground in a silent but tense standstill.

"Let Sonic go, Eggman!" Blaze growled, stepping forward.

"No," Eggman said, crossing his arms defiantly.

"Sonic!" Tails called out to his captured friend. "Use your Spindash to break through!"

"I can't, Tails! I've already tried!" the blue hedgehog said, putting pressure to the cut on his head. He winced slightly as pain prickled at his nerves.

Blaze grew angrier at the human's refusal to comply. Red flames burst from her clenched fists, burning brightly and fiercely, embodying her anger. "Let him go, or else!"

"Or else... what? Did you really think it was going to be that easy?" Eggman asked sarcastically. After he was through with his taunts, he gave out an evil laugh.

"Or else this, fat man!" The rage on Blaze's face was the last thing that could be seen before she engulfed herself in flames. This action received a gasp from Rouge, Storm, and Jet, whom had never seen her power in use.

The fire-covered cat raced forward towards Eggman, an arm outstretched. Despite the flames obscuring Blaze's vision, she could make out a dark form racing forward to counter her attack. She just managed to grab something off of Eggman's red coat, pulling it off as the figure kicked her back. Blaze grunted as she landed on her back at Knuckles' feet, the fire around her dissipating. She sat up to see Metal Sonic, standing in front of Eggman with his arms outstretched. Metal Knuckles was able to maintain holding Sonic's cage on his own.

If Eggman had noticed that Blaze had snagged something off of him, he didn't express it. Instead, he looked up, past the line of foes, and grinned evilly. Before anybody could turn around to see what he was smiling at, Shadow leaped over them, landing neatly next to the doctor. Under one arm was the Master Emerald, and clutched in both of his hands were six rhombus-shaped gems.

Blaze clenched her fists, hit with the realization that during their fighting, the Sol Emeralds and the Master Emerald had been left in the house, unguarded. Knuckles yelled in wordless frustration and jumped towards Shadow, winding up a punch. Before his spiked fist could make contact with his target, two words met the echidna's ears.

"_**Chaos Control!**_"

The Master Emerald responded to the call, emitting a brilliant flash of bright blue light. The next thing Knuckles knew, his punch had landed on the asphalt where Shadow had been. Said hedgehog, Eggman, his robots, the Master Emerald, the Sol Emeralds, and Sonic had all vanished, courtesy of Chaos Control. The echidna growled in frustration again, pounding his fist repeatedly on the street, as though doing so would somehow harm Shadow.

As the others looked around wildly, Blaze clenched her fists even tighter. She blinked in slight surprise as she felt an edge cutting into her fingers when she did so. The cat remembered that she had managed to take something from Eggman, and had never gotten a look at it. She opened her gloved hand, revealing a small, grey computer disc. Perhaps all hope wasn't lost just yet.

* * *

Amy stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. The paths that the tears had taken when running down her cheeks were still visible, and her eyes had reddened from crying. She sighed, turned on the faucet, and splashed her face with cold water. She let the droplets run down her face for a few moments before turning off the water and drying off her face with a fluffy orange towel. Then the hedgehog unlocked the bathroom door and walked back down the hall, returning to the main room where she and Wave were being held. Or so she thought.

"Hey, Wave?" Amy called out as she entered the room. There was no answer, as Wave was no longer present. "Stupid bird. She probably ran off. Didn't even take me with her."

Shrugging it off, Amy walked over to the desk, staring at the tarot cards sitting on them. She picked them up, and shuffled the deck as she sat down on one of the beds. After sufficient shuffling, Amy picked the top three cards and laid them face down on the orange blanket. Slowly, she turned the first card over. The image on the card was not one of which definition was clear-- it was a gun. In curiosity, Amy turned over the second card. The tear drop was not an image she was familiar with, either. The pink hedgehog reached for the third card, but hesitated when her fingers touched it.

_'I have a bad feeling about this,'_ Amy thought as she flipped the final card over. Her heart almost stopped, as she felt her blood run cold. A image of the grim reaper was on this card. Its meaning of death was clear, even though Amy had never actually run across this card before.

"No..." Amy whispered, backing away slightly from the cards. "I... I have to be wrong. Maybe I made a mistake."

Before she could contemplate any further, the metal door slid open. A form was tossed in, much like Amy's first entrance into the room, which was quickly followed by the door sliding shut. She gasped and jumped off the bed, rushing over to the unconscious form. Her green eyes widened, not at the large cut running up his back, not at the bruises that could barely be seen amid his black fur, but rather at the familiarity of the form. It was Shadow who was lying crumpled on the floor.

* * *

The hangar was filled with the bright flash of Chaos Control. Eggman, Metal Sonic, Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles, Shadow, and the still-captive Sonic appeared when the light subsided. The still-captive hedgehog was jolted slightly when his prison moved forward, floating with the villains as they walked forward. Tails Doll, Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, and Shadow surrounded the prison on all sides as though to subdue Sonic, should he escape.

"What do you want with me, Eggman?" asked Sonic.

"I want you to get out of my way. Keeping you in my sight will help me with that," Eggman replied.

That logic made little sense to Sonic, but he chose to ignore it as they reached the entrance. A jet-black bird in a metal suit was standing guard, armed with throwing knives and a pistol. She smirked when she saw the blue hedgehog.

"I see you've finally captured 'big blue', eh Eggy?" she asked, laughing a bit. Sonic frowned. Her chuckles seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he'd heard it before.

Shadow stepped forward, obviously not sharing her mood. "Just let us enter, swallow!"

The bird threw her arms in the air and rolled her eyes. "A little cranky today, aren't we? Sure thing, bosserino."

She walked over to a panel by the door, pressing a button on it. The large metal door creaked a bit as it opened. Eggman walked in, followed by the robots and the hedgehogs. Sonic took a closer look at the bird as his cage went past her. For a split second, the light blue eyes of the bird locked with Sonic's green eyes. A chill ran down his spine at the icy gaze he had been given. Sonic shook his head to clear his thoughts, then faced forward.

"Say, that was a pretty realistic looking robot you had there, Eggman!" he said.

"Hrmph! Whoever said it was a robot?" Eggman growled, heading down a corridor. Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles, Metal Sonic, and Shadow broke away from the two rivals, heading towards some other room. Where this room was, Sonic didn't get to see, as his floating cage turned a corner, while still behind Eggman.

"It isn't a robot?" Sonic asked, confused.

"No, of course not!" the human answered, chuckling. "It's a experiment. I have to say, she seems to be working quite well."

Silence was all that passed between them as they turned one last corner. The transparent walls of Sonic's prison then vanished. Caught off-guard, the blue hedgehog landed face-first, grunting a bit. Before he could escape, Sonic was pushed into another cell, surrounded by metal bars. As he got to his feet, he noticed another figure walking up next to Eggman.

"Sonic! It's nice to see you once again," Eggman Nega greeted, flashing another false smile.

Sonic smirked, crossing his arms as he leaned forward against the bars. "I wish I could say the same."

"Still as stubborn as ever. You haven't changed a bit," the human said.

Noticing the slight bending of the bars against his weight, Sonic quickly formed a plan in his mind, putting it into action immediately. "Say, you guys wouldn't happen to know where Wave the Swallow is, do you? You see, before I got captured, we were kinda looking for her..."

The two humans exchanged amused looks. They looked identical, just like reflections in a mirror.

"No, we haven't! Jet and Storm must feel so bad," Eggman said, his voice filled with mock-depression.

"Oh... well, I was hoping you'd know." Sonic held in the urge to smirk, forcing himself to frown in disappointment instead. He bit his lip and brought his hands to his eyes, as though he were about to cry. "Y-you think she might be... dead? I-I really don't want to let my b-buddies down, and..." He gave a sniff, refraining from laughing. This was certainly over-the-top for Sonic, and even though he wasn't in control of the situation here, he was still amused by his own actions.

Eggman Nega let out an unconvinced snort. "Your act isn't working."

"Really? Good!" Sonic canned the theatrics, quickly curling up into a Spindash. Despite the fresh wave of pain traveling along his nerves, he rocketed towards the humans, breaking the bars with relative ease. Sonic uncurled and prepared to run down the hall, but was stopped as something made contact with his back. He fell forward as it wrapped around him, grunting in pain for the second time in so many minutes. He rolled over onto his back and looked down to find a dimly glowing, purple goop-like substance wrapped around his upper body. Sonic squirmed to get free, but the more he struggled, the tighter this newest restraint squeezed him.

"It's no use trying to escape," Eggman Nega said. "There is no way you can in that condition!"

Despite his position on the floor, Sonic gave a dry laugh, attempting to annoy his captors. "I'm not in that bad of a condition!"

"You're right. But not for long," Eggman sneered, pulling out an orange and yellow gun that looked almost like a child's water pistol. Sonic raised his eyebrow in confusion.

"What are you talking ab--!" The hedgehog was cut short as Eggman fired the gun at Sonic's left leg. When the white shot made contact, a burning sensation exploded through his leg, accompanied by a loud scream of pain from Sonic. The burning subsided shortly, only to be replaced with an even worse pain. He tried to move his leg, but the pain increased tenfold, rendering the limb useless. Tears appeared at Sonic's tightly shut eyes.

"Wh-what did you do to me?" he hissed in pain.

"You've just had the honor of finding out firsthand what this newest invention of mine can do. Now, if you stay put in that cell and don't talk, I'll give you painkillers. If not, I'll break the other leg," Eggman explained. His counterpart had taken the time to retreat into the darkness.

Sonic knew he was helpless to do anything right now, and an additional broken leg would not help his circumstances any. He clenched his teeth and nodded.

* * *

Tails took another look at the small grey disc that Blaze had handed him a few minutes ago. After examining it once more, he placed the disc into the drive on Sonic's computer. Everyone, save for Blaze, was standing around the desk, waiting to see what would happen. The hard drive whirred as it read the disc, and within seconds, the monitor's screen went black. A single white sub-screen containing a map popped up from the black.

Cream, who was standing next to the seat Tails was in, peered at the screen and asked, "What does this mean, Tails?"

"I think it's a map to Dr. Robotnik's base... but why would he put the map in such an easy place to reach?" Tails said, not directing his last question at anyone in particular.

Storm tapped his large index finger on a small brown splotch, at the corner of the map. "What's that thing?"

The two-tailed fox double-clicked where Storm was pointing, zooming in. "Hmm... it looks like mountains to me. What do you think, guys?"

Rouge snatched the mouse out from Tails' hand and double-clicked a few more times, zooming in even further. Then she right-clicked, bringing up a menu. Before anyone could read what was on it, the bat clicked on one of the choices. The two-dimensional map rotated onto its side, now becoming three-dimensional.

"Those aren't mountains. It's an island... probably underwater," Rouge said. "It must be sunken or something. But whatever happened to it, it appears to be right below where Angel Island is floating, or at least in the general vicinity."

"Hey, can you make that any bigger? I think I see something," Jet commanded, from his seat on the edge of the wooden desk.

Tails took the mouse back from Rouge and zoomed in until the island filled the entire screen. He leaned back in the blue swivel chair, giving the hawk more room so he could see better. Jet squinted slightly and brought his face closer to the screen. Giving a small squawk of recognition, he put his index finger on one spot, straightening up from his bent-over position.

"There's a red dot there. I think that might be Eggman's base!" he said.

"You're right!" Tails exclaimed, after looking at where Jet was pointing. He pressed the print button on the keyboard, and the printer came to life immediately. Once the page had finished printing, Tails zoomed out, and then pressed print again.

Knuckles uncrossed his arms and retrieved the two pieces of paper that the printer had expelled. After glancing both papers over for a few seconds with his violet eyes, he shook his head. "You must have really good eyes."

The six Mobians turned around, their attention caught by the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. Blaze stood at the bottom of the staircase, holding the white Sol Emerald, with a confused expression on her face.

"Why are you all staring at me?" she asked. When nobody answered, she shook her head and walked over to the computer, gently setting down the Sol Emerald on the desk. "I have at least a bit of good news. Since I left one Sol Emerald in my world, we should be able to use this one to find the others, thus leading us to Eggman."

"I could do that just as easily with the Master Emerald," Knuckles said, waving a hand dismissively at the cat. "Besides, Tails found a map on that disc you stole. So technically, we don't need the Sol Emerald."

Blaze put a hand on her hip and pointed a finger at Knuckles. "Let me tell you something. When I was in my room, I noticed that the devices that Tails had made to keep the Sol Emeralds stable were lying on my bed. Do you know what that means? Hm? We could all be dead in a matter of 48 hours if we don't get those machines back on the Sol Emeralds. So don't you go saying we don't need the last one!"

Rouge raised a hand, interrupting Blaze. "And how can you use the Master Emerald to find the Sol Emeralds, anyway?"

Knuckles gritted his teeth in frustration. "You don't get what I mean! I meant that--"

Cream whimpered a bit, not particularly fond of the growing argument. Jet shoved himself off the desk. "Wait a minute. What about Wave?"

This outburst didn't help matters any, as the four began to get into a shouting match. Oblivious to all of the arguing, Tails examined the window some more, eventually coming across a small text file. This opened a new window, containing what looked like either an extremely organized journal or a record of plans.

_'It's probably his plans,'_ Tails thought, starting to read through the file. Before he could scroll down very far, he came across that day's date. His curiosity piqued by the fact that the records had been updated so recently, he began to read.

_My plan is working perfectly! Eggman Nega is also here in Mobius, helping me along. Today, we have captured Wave the Swallow and Amy Rose. We are also pleased that--_

Tails was unable to read any more, as the hard drive quite literally went out with a bang. The monitor immediately went blank, and smoke began to drift up from the computer tower. This silenced everyone in the room, and there was an awkward silence for a couple of seconds. The fox was frustrated that he hadn't been able to read further, but shrugged it off, turning to face the other occupants in the room.

"Oh, well. I got all the information I wanted anyway. Jet, Storm, I found out that Wave was captured by Dr. Robotnik," Tails began. Then his ears drooped slightly. "Amy was captured, too."

* * *

Amy reentered the room, carrying one of the now-dampened towels from the bathroom. She placed the towel on Shadow's forehead and sat down on the edge of the bed, pulling the blankets up to his chin. Earlier, she had cleaned up his wounds and bandaged them with whatever materials she could find in the bathroom. Before she had done that, Amy had tried to wake him up. Much to her disappointment and slight annoyance, Shadow did not stir.

As she sat on the edge of the bed, Amy found herself staring right at him. Four years had passed, but Shadow had not changed in his appearance. He probably hadn't even grown height-wise. He still had the same 16-year-old appearance that he'd had when she first met him, back on Prison Island. She thought back to that time for a moment, remembering the insane plan that Eggman had set into motion then. It seemed like child's play in comparison to whatever he was up to now.

Without warning, Shadow's eyes shot open, staring directly into hers. Amy gasped, turning away as she felt a blush briefly coming over her face. The ebony hedgehog grabbed the towel and removed it from his forehead.

"What am I doing here?" he asked, starting to sit up.

Amy pushed him back onto the bed, her face still scarlet. "Someone threw you in here. You were unconscious and you were hurt. I hope you don't mind that I tended to your wounds."

"Hmph. I don't need your help," Shadow muttered, scowling. He sat up again, intending to stand up, but collapsed just as quickly. His vision swam for only a couple of seconds, but the dizzy feeling that came over him didn't leave as fast. Amy took a moment to smother her anger at his noncompliance.

"I'll ignore the rude comment," she said, reaching for the damp towel. "You should be laying down for at least fifteen minutes, with those wounds. How did you get hurt, anyway?"

Knowing that he was unable to fight back for the time being, Shadow let Amy put the cloth back on his forehead, pursing his lips. "I suppose I should be offering you my thanks by letting you know. But I can't tell you everything. To put it in short words, I was disobeying the person I work for. This is my consequence."

Amy frowned. "Who are you working for? Eggman?"

Shadow nodded. Before Amy could ask why he was working for the doctor, Shadow turned his head, looking towards the other bed. Pointing with his hand, he asked, "What are those?"

Amy looked over where he pointed, and bit her lip. He had noticed the tarot cards. She walked over, picked the three cards up, and then brought them over to Shadow.

"They're tarot cards. They predict the future."

"You seem uncomfortable," Shadow said. If he was concerned in the slightest, his monotone voice sure didn't express it.

Amy looked up at Shadow, who was looking at her, and then returned her gaze to the cards. She set them down on the blankets next to him, showing him the pictures. "Well, the gun and the tear drop... I'm not exactly sure what they mean. But... the grim reaper... that's death. From the looks of it, the gun might mean 'weapons'... and the tear drop, 'sadness'. But cards have many meanings, so that might not be their actual message."

Shadow took this in, and then crossed his arms. "So, what you think that these cards are basically saying... is that someone is going to be shot, they're going to be sad, and then they're going to die?"

Amy couldn't think of a better interpretation at the moment, so she just nodded.

"It's just a game, just a coincidence. There's no way that this will all happen," Shadow said, sounding unconvinced.

"I've predicted the future with tarot cards before, Shadow. It's going to happen," Amy growled, clenching her fists.


	6. Further Plans

**Chapter 6: Further Plans**

* * *

Sonic closed his eyes, rested his forehead against the cold bars of his cell and let out a big sigh. He gingerly touched his leg and winced as pain shot through him again. His leg remained broken and Eggman had _apparently_ agreed to give him painkillers. The blue hedgehog had seen neither Eggman nor his counterpart since. This was quite a while back, possibly a few hours ago, but Sonic wasn't keeping track of the time.

"You're in luck, Sonic. After much deliberation, we've decided to move you."

Sonic snapped his eyes open and whipped his head towards the voice, clenching his teeth in another slight wince at the sudden movement he made. Just outside of his cell stood Eggman Nega and Metal Knuckles. The red robot pressed a button on the nearby wall, which caused the cell bars to retract suddenly into the floor. Sonic was unprepared for this and promptly fell flat onto his face. He growled in pain as he propped himself up on his elbows.

"Take him to his room, Metal Knuckles," Eggman Nega ordered.

The robot scooped up Sonic roughly with one of his massive forearms and turned quickly, making the hedgehog's leg hit against the wall in the process. Sonic had to bite his lip and squeeze his eyes shut in order to keep a cry of pain from escaping his throat.

* * *

The nighttime train to Mystic Ruins normally did not have many passengers, and tonight was no exception. The clouds had darkened considerably since morning, making the nighttime seem darker than usual. The train's whistle blew loudly, signaling that it was preparing to depart. Seven Mobians could be seen running as fast as they could, desperate to catch the train before it left the station. Knuckles and Rouge were the first ones to dash through the closing doors, followed closely by Blaze, Cream, and Tails. Jet and Storm brought up the rear, barely making it aboard by their tail feathers. Tails, Cream, Blaze, and Rouge held on to nearby seats to steady themselves as they caught their breath, while Knuckles, Storm, and Jet all flopped face down on the floor, panting. All of them were thankful to finally be in some warmth.

The train gave the slightest lurch as it pulled out from the station, beginning on to its destination to Mystic Ruins. Save for the group of seven, and one armadillo who was fast asleep in the back, the entire passenger car was empty.

"So then, let's go over the plan one more time," Tails said, sitting down on one of the seats and pulling out his two map printouts.

As the train moved, the remaining six Mobians gathered around the fox. Knuckles, unable to hear very well outside of the circle, attempted to get in closer by squeezing in between Blaze and Storm. The albatross grunted in protest as he was shoved slightly, while Blaze gave Knuckles a disdainful glance.

"When we get to Tails' house, Tails, Blaze and I will go get the Tornado 3," Cream began, reaching into her purse. She pulled out some Com-Links that she had picked up at Sonic's house, and passed one to everybody.

"Yes, and then we will meet in front of my house. Knuckles and Rouge will use my custom Extreme Gears. Jet and Storm have their own gears, so they're all set to go right now," Tails said, pointing at each person respectively.

"After that, we'll all head for Eggman's base. From there, we will make further plans," Rouge finished. She looked at Tails and gave him a look that was somewhere between confused and disbelief. "That's sort of unorganized, isn't it?"

"It's how Sonic always did it," Tails muttered, shrugging.

Taking this as a motion to end the planning, everybody proceeded to take a seat elsewhere in the car. Knuckles was the first to do so, plopping down on the burgundy cushion next to Tails. The echidna yawned and slumped forward slightly, resting his chin in his hands. It was now ten o' clock at night, and as such, he would have normally been asleep by now. They would have gotten to the train station far earlier, but Tails had been required to make more Com-Links for the others, which had taken a while. He closed his eyes for a couple of minutes, the silence remaining unbroken excepting for the steady rumble of the train on its tracks.

Without warning, the train's wheels let out a loud groan. The vehicle's sudden stop nearly jolted everybody out of their seats, shaking those who were nodding off out of their impending slumber. The seven Mobians stood up, with Knuckles grumbling as he did so. When the group walked out, he took happy notice of the fact that it was a lot warmer in Mystic Ruins than it was at Station Square, although it was no less dark. They all headed towards Tails' house in silence. Once they got there, Knuckles and Rouge began to run towards the house, but Tails stopped them.

"Hold on, I need to turn off security first," the fox said. He went up to the keypad by the door and typed in a long, overtly complicated sequence of numbers. A resounding click sounded from within the house, and Tails opened the door, motioning to the waiting echidna and bat.

"The Gears will be in the first closet on the left!" Tails called after the two as they went inside. Then he ran to catch up with Blaze and Cream, who were already outside of the nearby hangar.

"The_first_ closet on the left? How many closets does he have?" Knuckles muttered to himself, spotting the oak door immediately. He went over and opened the door without problems. Just as Tails had said, there were two Gears propped up against the wall of the closet. There were various gadgets and miscellaneous trinkets littering the floor, but the echidna paid them no heed.

"Here," Knuckles said, grabbing the Yellow Tail board and passing it to Rouge. He withdrew the Red Rock board and closed the closet door.

Rouge examined the custom board as they walked outside, a small frown on her face. "How on Mobius are you supposed to use this thing?"

The echidna thought of teaching her how to use the Extreme Gear, but decided against it. Smirking, Knuckles told her, "It's easy... well, for me, anyway. You'll get used to it."

They walked up next to Jet and Storm, who were holding their respective boards. After a few minutes in awkward silence, a low rumbling could be heard. The four turned their heads towards the hangar, nearly getting blinded by the bright lights that turned on. They managed to shield their eyes, and after rapid blinking, were able to see a golden yellow biplane wheel out slowly. Knuckles assumed that this was Tails' latest project, the Tornado 3. The Com-Links around everyone's wrists hissed with static briefly before Cream's voice could be heard through it.

"_Okay, everyone! Follow the Tornado 3, please!_" she said, sounding excited.

The four all hopped onto their Extreme Gear and waited for the Tornado to take off. Knuckles was barely able to keep a laugh restrained as Rouge wobbled slightly.

"Hold on a minute! How are we going to use the Extreme Gears when we're going to be over water?" Rouge asked. The hoverboards that she had heard about never worked over water.

Tails' reply came over the Com-Link. "_That's easy! Turbulence!_"

A loud roar filled the night air as the Tornado 3 took off, a long tail of air flowing behind it. Jet and Storm, being experienced racers, were able to press through the thick turbulence with hardly any effort. Knuckles had to exert more force to follow the two Babylonians, not bothering to look back at a struggling Rouge. The turbulence was not something she was accustomed to, and therefore its strength repelled her attempts to follow the others.

"H-Hey! Wait! How do you use this thing?" she yelled from behind.

Without warning, the bat pressed through a lot quicker than she expected. She zipped past Storm, giving a scream as she nearly fell off the board. Flaring her wings, Rouge was able to regain her balance quickly. Knuckles snickered to himself as Jet sighed in annoyance.

* * *

"How on Mobius are we going to get out of here, Shadow?" Amy asked, pacing in front of him.

"We don't," Shadow replied bluntly. He was feeling a bit better than he had been earlier, but he still had a pounding headache. "The doctor specifically designed this room so that you can come in, but you can't come out."

Amy stopped and faced Shadow, a tense expression on her face. "B-But Eggman's work always has faults. How else would've we beaten him in the past?"

Shadow opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off as the metal door suddenly slid open. A most familiar azure form was tossed in, and the door slammed shut. Shadow took half a second to look at the hedgehog, his answer to Amy's question immediately turning into something else.

"Well. The faker was captured, too?" he said dully, attempting to annoy the blue hedgehog.

Sonic's only reply was a yelp of pain, his hands flying to his broken leg. Shadow looked over at Amy, half-expecting her to run over while screaming Sonic's name in happiness, like she always did. That did not happen, instead replaced by the pink hedgehog crossing her arms and turning her back on the hero.

"It would be nice if someone helped me out here!" Sonic whined, looking over pleadingly at Shadow and Amy. The ebony hedgehog gave Sonic a look that read '_yeah, right_' and turned away from him.

_'The doctor really must be up to something. Normally he wouldn't leave the faker in such a pathetic state,'_ he thought. Upon hearing a hiss of pain and a grunt, he turned his head, glancing at Amy. With a bit of difficulty, she had managed to lift Sonic up and was currently carrying him over to the other bed. She set him down, taking care not to hurt his tender leg, and then walked down to the bathroom, leaving Sonic and Shadow in silence. The blue hedgehog sighed, bringing Shadow's attention to him.

"Eggman has crossed the line between good guy and bad guy," Sonic said.

Shadow was about say something, but Amy had returned with a first-aid kit, so he decided to keep quiet. He watched as Sonic winced when Amy wrapped a long bandage around his leg.

"Will you stop moving around so much, Sonic?" Amy snapped, not looking up at her patient.

Shadow was most taken aback by her attitude. Never before had he heard Amy talk like that to her 'hero'. Judging from the surprised expression on Sonic's face, Shadow deduced that the blue hedgehog felt the same way he did.

_'Maybe she finally grew up,'_ Shadow thought, crossing his arms. _'Then again... she looks rather upset.'_

"A-Ames..." Sonic stuttered, as she finished tending to him. "Look, Amy. I'm sorry."

Amy turned her back to him and coldly replied, "It's a little too late, Sonic."

With that, she walked off, her fists clenched. Shadow watched her walk off, and then lazily looked over at Sonic, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, Faker, what did you do to her now?" he asked.

"Nothing!" Sonic exclaimed defensively. "I guess she's just a little cranky."

Shadow shook his head and sat up straighter. Then he proceeded to look over his shoulder and speak in a leisurely way. "Well, you were her idol the last time I saw you two. You've obviously done something."

Amy returned, a damp cloth in her hand. The wrinkles in the cloth hinted that she had just wrung it of excess water. She folded it into a neat rectangle, and then placed it on Sonic's forehead.

"Get some rest. It'll do you good," she muttered, not looking at him.

"Amy, I said I was sorry," Sonic started. "What else do you wa--"

"I said, _get some rest_," Amy snapped, clenching her fists even tighter.

Sonic looked at Amy for a moment, cut by her outburst, before he closed his eyes, trying to drop off to sleep. Shadow shook his head in disbelief, immediately regretting the action the moment his headache berated him for it. The angered female stormed over next to Shadow and sat down on the bed. He looked down at Amy, who was staring at floor. Her gloved hands were squeezing the ends of her dress, much like she had wrung the cloth earlier.

"It's too late," she muttered under her breath.

Shadow waited a few minutes before looking over his shoulder again. Seeing that Sonic was either in slumber or faking it extremely well, he turned back to Amy.

"Not that this is any of my business, but why do you hate him all of a sudden?" he inquired, his voice a whisper.

Amy's reply was just as quiet. "You're right, Shadow. It's none of your business."

* * *

Blaze looked at the darkness below the wing of the Tornado 3, biting back a wave of nausea. Air travel was not something the cat was accustomed to, and it had taken all of her willpower to restrain her fear of heights. She had required a bit of help as the Tornado 3 had ascended into the air. Even though she was seated within the closed-up cockpit, safe from the wind, it did nothing to calm to her uneasy stomach.

"I can't believe I agreed to this," Blaze muttered into the Com-Link, knowing perfectly well that the other two in the Tornado could hear her quite well without it. Using the device helped get her mind off the fact that she was in the air, no matter how slight the distraction.

"Don't worry," Cream said in a reassuring way, looking back at Blaze. "At least you're not on an Extreme Gear!"

"Yes. I suppose you're right," Blaze sighed, attempting to make herself more comfortable. She didn't know how Cream and Tails were able to not be airsick, but she was grateful that she did not have to ride the turbulence. The cat could not even begin to fathom how Knuckles, Rouge, Jet or Storm could manage such a ride.

A steady beep resounded from the front of the cockpit, attracting Cream's attention. The rabbit peeked over Tails' shoulder in curiosity.

"What is that?" she asked.

"It's a--" Tails was cut off when a loud yelp sounded over the Com-Link. Everyone in the cockpit winced slightly at the amount of decibels Rouge had ended up using.

"_WILL YOU GET OFF?_" came Knuckles' voice a second later.

"_It isn't my fault if a gust of wind nearly made me fall off!_" Rouge retaliated.

"_Yeah, that's right. Just go and latch onto ME for help!_"

"_WILL YOU GUYS SHUT UP?_" Jet roared.

Tails gritted his teeth and winced further, pulling the earpiece away from his ear before any permanent damage could be done.

"Is it possible that if any particular party was making a lot of noise, that they could maybe turn the Com-Link off?" Blaze asked into the Com-Link, directing her question at the four Mobians on Extreme Gears.

She was given the reply of "_Sure,_" from the four tailing the plane. Tails sighed, while Cream giggled a bit.

"They're so funny," Cream said.

"Yeah, but also annoying," Tails muttered. "Anyways, that beeping is the sound of the tracking system on the plane. It's letting me know that we are getting close to our destination."

"That's... good," Blaze said, her voice slurring as her airsickness was renewed.

Tails couldn't help but laugh slightly as he lifted the Com-Link to his mouth. "Okay, everybody! We're going to land now, so get ready!"

The Tornado 3 made a sharp turn as it descended, eventually landing smoothly on a rocky formation above the ocean water. The turbulence still lingered behind the plane even after it had landed. Cream opened the door to the cockpit and hopped out onto the rocky ground, with Tails following suit. He heard a nauseated groan and turned around to see Blaze leaning lightly against the side of the plan, looking somewhat green.

"Are you okay, Blaze?" Cream asked, walking forward.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just a bit woozy," Blaze replied, rubbing her temples.

Without warning, Tails was hit in the head with a flying Extreme Gear, which had no rider on it. Cream raced over to his side, while Blaze was slowly dispelling her airsickness with slow breaths.

"I'm okay... ow..." Tails groaned, rubbing his head.

"Sorry 'bout that, kid," Rouge called, as Knuckles, Jet, Storm and herself walked over from the back of the plane.

"Looks like Red Mutt forgot to tell Rouge how to stop!" Storm let out a laugh, and gave Knuckles a punch in the side of the head.

Rouge joined in with Storm's laughter. "Red Mutt. I aught to use that one. Thanks, albatross!"

Knuckles glared and returned Storm's punch, aiming this one at his forehead. "I hate you right now!"

"You guys, now isn't a really good time to be fighting," Tails said loudly from his spot at the edge, interrupting the looming clash. Knuckles and Storm abandoned their fighting stances, joining everyone else around the fox. "I just tested the water to see if we could swim in it. It's safe, but according to the map printouts, the base is really far down."

"Yeah, so what? We could easily swim down there," Jet said in annoyance.

"No. I mean, it's _really_ far down," Tails grumbled. "It's so deep down that we wouldn't be able to hold our breath that long if we tried to."

Knuckles removed something from the wrist of his glove, uncurling it. "I have my Air Necklace."

Tails looked at the necklace and nodded, looking around at the others. "That may be, but there's only one Air Necklace, and seven people."

"That plane is new. I recall that you mentioned putting an underwater mode on it?" Blaze asked, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, but it was just in the works. I didn't expect Dr. Robotnik to put a base of his underwater so soon," Tails replied, slumping his shoulders. "There's a risk that the Tornado's structure could shatter under the pressure of the water."

"We'll just have to take that risk, then!" Jet snapped, glaring at Tails angrily. "I came here to find Wave, and I plan to leave_with_Wave! Besides, Sonic and Amy are down there, too! What else are you going to do, Prower?"

"Yeah, Boss is right!" Storm growled, clenching his fist.

"B-But-!" Tails tried to protest.

"I'm sure we'll be able to make it, Tails. Let's just try!" Cream said, drawing Tails' attention to her. The doe gave him a reassuring smile and placed a hand on his shoulder. The fox gave a small smile back.

"Fine," he said. "I'll just be a second."

Tails walked back over to the Tornado 3, jumped back in, and pressed a purple button on the dashboard. Everyone took a half step back as the plane transformed. Eventually, it became what appeared to be a larger, but otherwise identical to the first Tornado 2's transformation. There were now three seats inside the cockpit, excluding the pilot's seat.

"_Okay. Cream, Blaze, Rouge? I'll take you guys down first,_" Tails said via the Com-Link._ "Be sure to bring the Extreme Gears with you. Knuckles can swim down beside us, and then I'll come back to get Jet and Storm... that is, if it holds up._"


	7. Beneath the Waters

**Chapter 7: Beneath the Waters**

* * *

"Are you guys all buckled in?" Tails asked, a hint of fear in his voice.

Cream, Blaze, and Rouge all nodded in reply, slightly nervous. Then again, who wouldn't be unnerved? The risk of the Tornado 3 shattering beneath the water, coupled with a slim chance of getting to the surface in time, would have resulted in hesitation of anyone, even the steel-nerved Shadow. Rouge let a short sigh escape her lips as she leaned sideways, resting her head against Knuckles' Extreme Gear.

She watched through the cockpit's window as Knuckles, with the Air Necklace secured to his mouth, gave a thumbs-up, signaling to Tails that he was ready to go. Rouge and Blaze simultaneously grabbed onto the edges of their seats as they felt the Tornado 3 rumble, slowly rolling towards the water. Cream took a deep breath to calm herself. There was a splash as they broke through the surface of the water, and another shortly afterwards as Knuckles followed them down. The water was murky and very difficult to see through, even with the aid of the Tornado 3's powerful headlights. The only light within the cockpit itself was the dim glow from the dashboard.

"It's dark," Blaze murmured.

Tails nodded his agreement, mentally noting the chill that had crept into the cockpit. They sank further and further beneath the surface, the low hum of the machine keeping the air from being completely silent. The spell was shattered by a warning beep, indicating the increase in pressure. Nobody needed to be told that-- the pressure was affecting everybody. Rouge's ears in particular were killing her. Tails flicked a few switches on the dashboard, biting his lower lip. All that the passengers could do was sit as the beep steadily became more frequent.

"What's going to happen, Tails?" Cream asked, covering her ears.

"Well, as long as we get to the base soon, we'll be fine," Tails replied.

* * *

Normally, Amy would have been overjoyed to see Sonic, but the thought of seeing him now made her want to smash something. Having avoided seeing her former hero for a few years had calmed her down. Now that they were cell-mates within in the same prison, her feelings of anger were renewed.

'_I still can't believe he'd choose Blaze over me! I've known him longer! How could he do something like that? Did he ever think of my feelings, even once?_' Amy thought angrily, before letting out a cold laugh. '_Probably not. That jerk is so caught up now in doing things for Blaze to even notice me. Stupid cat._'

Ever since Blaze had first been transported into their world, Amy had known that there was something about the cat that she didn't like. She had always given Sonic this _look_. The hedgehog sighed angrily, spitefully wishing that Blaze would die.

'_So now, she is with __**my**__ Sonic, going on dates and having fun. Hell, Sonic never took me on a date, not even once!_' Amy paused at that thought. Now that she looked back on it, Sonic had zoomed off almost every time she set foot near him, long before Blaze had arrived...

Amy hugged her knees closer to her chest and pressed her forehead against them, trying to sort out her unorganized thoughts. She'd locked herself in the bathroom after Shadow had attempted to reason with her. Granted, that had been rude of her, but Amy simply hadn't felt like talking with anyone at the moment. Then, as though a higher power had read her mind and was trying to object, she heard a loud knock on the door beside her.

"Amy?" It was Shadow.

Amy gave a loud, annoyed sigh. "What?"

She could hear Shadow give his standard '_hmph_', followed by a soft thump. "I was justing coming to say that there is food outside your door if you want it."

After that, the pink hedgehog could only hear silence. Slowly, she stood up and turned the handle carefully. Amy peeked out to see Shadow and Sonic, each holding a plate of food, lying on different beds. However, Shadow had considerably less on his plate than Sonic. Amy looked down to see a plate outside her door, which was full with a meal that was grey and lacked any particular shape, but looked at least somewhat edible. She opened the door fully, bent over, and picked up the dish. Then she straightened up, walked over to the bed that Shadow was on and sat down beside him, avoiding any eye contact with Sonic.

"Where's all your food, Shadow?" Amy asked out of curiosity, pointing to his plate.

"I ate it," Shadow replied simply.

"That's not what I saw," Sonic said mischievously.

"I wasn't asking you, Sonic," Amy growled.

Sonic ignored her reply and pressed on. "Well, Shadow put some of his food on your plate, since there wasn't very much."

Shadow gave another grunt. "There wasn't a lot on your dish, and I wasn't that hungry anyway."

Amy felt Shadow's gaze on her and quickly looked down, a blush on her face. After a few seconds of thought, she began spooning some of her food onto his plate.

"Here," she mumbled, ignoring the grumbling of her stomach. "You should have more than that. Y-You were hurt, and you need to recover... so you need the food more than I do."

"Thanks," Shadow said. He gave Amy a peculiar look, one which the pink hedgehog couldn't quite decipher. She smiled sheepishly and brought the first bite of her meal to her lips. She was rather surprised to find that the grey meal had a decent taste-- it reminded her of beef.

'_Why am I acting so strangely around him?_' Amy thought as she ate. '_I've never been like that with Shadow before!_'

The feeling she had wasn't something she knew-- it was as though she felt nervous, and yet happy at the same time. Her spiteful thoughts of Sonic and Blaze began to disappear. Amy glanced over at the blue hedgehog, who was already asleep, the plate still in his hand. She looked back down at her dress and bit her bottom lip, wishing that Shadow would say something, even if to merely break the silence. It was incredibly awkward.

Eventually, the two hedgehogs finished eating. Amy stole a glance from her wristwatch-- midnight, and still neither Shadow nor she had said a word. It was over her head if Shadow was uncomfortable with the silence, but she knew for a fact that she would most likely explode if nobody said anything. Amy yawned, gently placed her plate on the floor, and laid down on the bed.

"Do you mind if I go to sleep?" she asked, glancing up at Shadow.

"Hmph," was all he said.

'_I guess I should have expected that,_' Amy thought, closing her eyes.

* * *

"Where is Mister Knuckles?" Cream asked, her hands wringing the large green towel she was holding for said echidna.

Blaze, Cream, and Rouge were sitting just outside of Eggman's base, having managed to make it alive. It had taken him a bit of time, but Tails had eventually fixed the pressure in the Tornado 3, and had gone back to fetch Jet and Storm. Knuckles was a fair distance behind them, so all the three could do was sit there, waiting for him and Tails. The base, which looked like a large warehouse with the infamous orange Eggman logo on its roof, was within a large dome, which in turn was nestled against the side of an underwater island. They had managed to get in through an water-filled opening in the dome, right against the side of the island. Eggman had obviously taken the time to carefully plan the structure, effectively turning the dome into an air pocket.

Cream continued twisting the towel as she waited by the water. Rouge walked up to take a closer look at the building, Blaze silently following her.

"So, what's up with you and Sonic, hmm? You two sure seem on close terms," Rouge said, giving the cat a teasing smirk.

"I'm his girlfriend. Why, is that a problem to you?" Blaze replied, her amber eyes flashing heatedly.

Rouge laughed. "No, not at all! I just can't see Sonic having a girlfriend, that's all. Besides, even if he did have one, everyone thought that he would end up with Amy."

The first sparks of anger that had been in Blaze's eyes faded out quickly. She gazed at the wall of the warehouse and muttered, "I do admit, Amy was pretty upset."

Rouge looked at the lavender cat, intrigued by her words. She was about to inquire further when Cream released a shriek of fear. Rouge and Blaze hurried over to find Knuckles' head sticking out of the water, and the small rabbit breathing heavily.

"What's wrong?" Blaze demanded.

"It's nothing, Blaze. Mister Knuckles just scared me when his head popped out of the water," Cream explained, smiling lightly.

"Hello? C-Could someone get me out of here? It's fr-freezing," Knuckles said, his teeth chattering.

Rouge nodded, bending down and holding out her hands to help him. He placed his large hands on top of her petite ones, and she yanked hard. Knuckles was a lot lighter than Rouge had expected, and thus she ended up overexerting her strength. He nearly flew out of the water from the force of her pull, making her fall back as well. There was an awkward silence as Rouge opened her eyes to see a wide-eyed, blushing Knuckles on top of her. She felt drips of ice-cold seawater drop onto her face from his soaked dreadlocks. For the second time in her life, the two of them were speechless. Rouge's face turned red as she recalled a similar incident that had happened back at the ARK. Without further ado, she shoved Knuckles off her, wiping the water droplets off her face. She stood up and crossed her arms, a blush still present on her surprised face.

"Do you want a towel... Mr. Knuckles?" Cream asked quietly, breaking the silence at last.

Knuckles got to his feet quickly, walked over to the rabbit, and quickly snatched the large towel from her. He rubbed it through his drenched dreadlocks briefly before throwing it around his shoulders, still shivering. Rouge glanced over at Knuckles when he came to stand next to her.

"S-S-Sorry," he muttered through chattering teeth.

"You should be sorry," she growled, smacking him upside the head.

"Hey! What was that for?" Knuckles yelled.

"That was for putting me in an uncomfortable position, thank you!" Rouge snapped, facing him.

Before their fight could graduate into something bloody, the Tornado 3 finally made landfall. The cockpit's hatch popped open, and Jet hopped out, two Extreme Gears under each arm. With a grunt, he tossed the Red Rock and the Yellow Tail at Rouge and Knuckles. The bat caught her board with ease, while Knuckles got hit in the face.

"Come on! Are we going or not?" the hawk snapped at them.

"Sure," Rouge said, shrugging.

Accepting that as an answer from the majority, Jet hopped on the Type-J and sped off. Storm followed suit with the Type-S, not very far behind.

"Okay, guys. Let's go," Tails said, locking the Tornado 3 with a portable device. Then he, Cream and Blaze set off running to catch up with the two Babylonians, with Knuckles and Rouge tailing them on their Extreme Gear.

* * *

Wave could see the seven forms rapidly approaching through the hangar's exit tunnel. It didn't take a genius to figure out that their intended destination was the inside of the base, which she was standing guard in front of.

'_Hmmm. Well, it's about time they got here,_' she thought with a smirk.

Jet and Storm zipped through the hangar on their boards, as did Knuckles and Rouge. Tails, Blaze and Cream, however, had a bit of difficulty running through, as they tried to not slip on the wet metal. Wave stepped forward from her spot, causing the ones on Extreme Gear to come to a halt and hop off their boards. Everyone formed a semi-circle around her, each with a fighting stance. Wave, however, was not intimidated in the least.

"What do you jerks want?" she asked coolly.

"To get inside! Now move it, lady, or I'll move you myself!" Storm yelled, stepping forward and cracking his knuckles threateningly.

"And why would I do that?" Wave asked, staring directly into the grey brute's beady white eyes. "I've received orders from the boss not to let you in."

"Yeah, well... well... uh..." Storm muttered, unable to think of a comeback to that. The others glared in annoyance.

"Hahaha! Your comebacks suck." Wave's laughter was only fueled by Storm's flinch at the biting remark.

"Oh, let's just get this over with!" Knuckles yelled without warning.

The echidna tossed the Red Rock aside, shoved Storm out of his way and ran forward, launching a punch. It was a fairly powerful attack, but Wave was able to catch it using both her hands. His arm quivered as he strained his muscles to their fullest, trying to complete the attack, to no avail. The swallow might not have been able to throw him back, but she certainly had enough strength to keep his punch from going any further.

"Not bad... for a red mutt," she said, smirking. This statement set off something within Knuckles, and he snarled in rage. Even in his anger, however, he noticed that it took both of her hands to block one of his fists. This had left the echidna's other hand free for attacking. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, he wound up another punch in preparation.

"_I'm not a freakin' mutt!_" he shouted, unleashing his second punch. With both hands holding back his other fist, which was still pushing to get through, Wave was unable to block this attack. Knuckles' fist connected squarely with his target, forcing the air from her lungs. She staggered backwards, eventually falling onto the ground, seemingly crippled by the blow. Knuckles bit back a hiss of pain-- her stomach had been partially shielded by her metal suit, and that had given him negative feedback in the form of a stinging fist. He shook it off quickly and advanced, smiling triumphantly down at her. "Had enough?"

"Nope!" Wave replied. She reached back into her pouches, unsheathed a throwing knife, and jumped back up to her feet. "I'm just starting."

Without any further warning, she lunged. Her stabs were rapid, but were not thrown around wildly-- she was aiming at his chest. Knuckles had no time to dodge, instead opting to grab both of her wrists, his purple eyes wide with surprise.

'_Hmm. He wasn't expecting that,_' she thought, a smirking forming on her beak. Wave twisted her left wrist, just managing to break free from his grasp, and swiftly cut into his left arm. Knuckles instantly relinquished his hold and issued a yell of pain, as the others gasped. His hand flew to his arm, the glove quickly gaining a red stain as the blood was absorbed into it.

"Now! Does anyone else dare to come forward?" Wave shouted, ignoring Knuckles as he tried to stop the blood from pouring out of his arm.

"I do."


	8. Agitation

**I apologize for the long lack of updates. Writer's block, temporary hiatus, and other things can really get in the way. I've also revised the previous chapters, due to plot holes and the releases of Rush Adventure and Zero Gravity, which concern a few details. Therefore, rereading the previous chapters is advised for both continuity patches and a refresher before reading this chapter. **

* * *

**Chapter 8: Agitation**

* * *

"You won't scare me off that easy!" Jet declared, stepping forward. 

Knuckles staggered backwards, blood still dripping from his arm onto the floor. Nobody paid him much heed, though, as their attention was fixed on the hawk's surprising boldness against their adversary. With Knuckles, of all people, injured from her attack, it had seemed that nobody else would go against her. Even Wave herself had believed that the group would back down.

Jet flicked his wrists, summoning his twin Bashyo fans, and glared at the swallow. "I don't care who you are, or if you have a million knives. No one gets in my way when I'm on a mission!"

"Whatever you want. It's your funeral," Wave said coolly.

Without warning, she jumped towards him, ready to bring the still-bloodied knife down on him. The group scattered, with Rouge and Storm dropping their boards as they fled. Jet emitted a squawk of surprise before dashing out of the way. The clang of metal against concrete resounded through the hangar, but Wave had already turned around and leapt for Jet again before the echo died away. Each time she lunged, he would just barely escape from her blade. Much to his frustration, Jet was forced to keep on the move, unable to send any attacks of his own.

Jet was so focused on dodging the attacks that he failed to notice that he was being driven straight towards the middle of the hangar. The bottom of his boot found no traction in the slippery metal, and his foot flew out from beneath him as he tried to turn around. Jet let out a grunt of pain as he landed on his back, the impact knocking the breath from his lungs. Wave looked down at him and smirked as she raised the knife. She brought it down, aiming for the chest...

... only for it to be knocked away from her hand by the Bashyo fans. Jet got back to his feet, holding the fans tightly in his grasp as he caught his breath. Water from the puddle dripped down his back.

"Like I said," Jet panted. "You won't scare me off that easy."

"But I _will_ get rid of you," Wave said, pulling out two knives from her pouch. A knot of uneasiness tied itself in Jet's stomach, and he tried to ignore it. Two knives against two fans was a fair fight, wasn't it?

The two birds side-stepped away from the wet metal, not daring to take their eyes off the other. Wave finally took the initiative and prepared to stab him again. Jet was overcome with the urge to take off running as he did before. However, if he were to do that, the cycle of attacking and dodging would only restart. With two knives in the swallow's hands now, he doubted he would be able to last if he slipped again. So knife met fan repeatedly as Jet defended himself from the attacks. Each time, he nearly lost his balance from pushing away the offending blade, with mere seconds to recover before the next one came for him.

Wave rained down blow after furious blow with the two knives. Jet grunted with the effort of keeping them at bay while also retaining his balance-- his fans were not made for defense. His arms screamed with pain, threatening to give out at any moment as he continued the frantic sweeping motions that kept the weapons away. Finally, there was a break in the pattern, as Wave brought both of the knives back at the same time. Utilizing this opportunity, Jet swung his two fans together, unleashing a powerful blast of wind. This knocked Wave off-balance, and she was thrown onto her back. Jet quickly wound up one more attack, holding his ground until the last possible moment. He panted with exhaustion, and beads of sweat trickled off of his forehead.

"You don't put up too bad of a fight, hawk!" Wave said, jumping to her feet and running towards him once more.

Before she could attack him, Jet let loose with his Screw Attack, whirling around with the remainder of his strength. The maneuver hit home, and Wave was sent flying even further back, this time slamming against the hangar wall. This brought forth a web of crackling electricity, and she screamed in pain as it flowed through her. After the worst of the bolts died away, Wave groaned as she collapsed face-down onto the floor. After a full minute of no further action from the swallow, Jet let out a massive sigh and sank to his knees in exhaustion, the Bashyo fans slipping out of his hands.

"Boss! Are you okay?" Storm asked, approaching the hawk.

"I'll be fine. I've seen worse," Jet lied, catching his breath. He could feel slight stinging sensations on his body in various places, where he had gotten nicked during the fight.

"Damn it," Knuckles swore, the bleeding of his arm slowing down. "I should have been the one to show her who's boss. But she just had to go and catch me by surprise!"

"Come on, Red Mutt," Rouge said. "Don't be mad just because you're not strong enough to fight girl power. Even I was impressed with her moves."

"Who asked you, you stupid bat? I could beat you right now!" Knuckles shook his injured arm at her, and immediately winced as a wave of pain followed his actions.

Rouge was unimpressed. "Just like you beat that swallow?"

While Knuckles and Rouge bickered, Blaze walked up towards Jet, still keeping her distance.

"That fight was one of the most furious I've ever seen," she said. Then she put a hand to her chin in thought as she recalled the four-year-old memory of the day that she had fought Sonic at Dead Line, noting how similar it had been to the battle that had just happened.

Tails was examining the fallen swallow. The silver box on her back was still crackling with small bolts of electricity, damaged from its collision with the wall. Her chest was rising and falling, signaling that she was still alive, albeit unconscious. Tails noticed a red card attached to the strap of knife pouches and carefully reached for it. After grabbing it with his thumb and forefinger, he quickly pulled the card away, as though she would wake up any minute and reclaim it.

Tails got back to his feet and took another look at the red card he had just snatched. Eggman's trademark logo was embossed onto the front, and the reverse side had a black strip intended for scanning-- a card key. He walked up to the door that the swallow had been guarding and looked for a card scanner, finding only a mere button. Tails pressed it, and the doors slid open without any trouble. He frowned, thinking that it had been too easy to open the door. Perhaps that was why the swallow had to be such a good fighter.

"Come on, guys," Tails called, turning around. "Let's keep going!"

Knuckles and Rouge almost didn't hear the fox between their arguing, and were reluctant to end their war of words so quickly. After a few seconds of silence and two simultaneous "harrumph"s, they both picked up the Extreme Gears that had been abandoned in the earlier battle and headed over towards the door, with Cream and Blaze following. Storm reclaimed the Type-S and began to make his way towards the rest of the group, but stopped when he realized that Jet wasn't following him. He turned around to find that the hawk had gotten to his feet, but was just standing there, the fans on the ground and his gaze fixed on the unconscious swallow.

Jet was still worn out from the battle. Until today, he had never been required to fight for his life, which was far different from the scuffles on the race track that he was more accustomed to. He had been victorious, which instilled some pride in him, but taking a second look at his fallen adversary made him wonder how permanent the damage he'd caused would be. Electrocution wasn't something that could be shrugged off like a minor bruise-- it was painful and often fatal. He cringed in fear at the thought of the black-feathered girl awakening, vengeance blazing in those ice-blue eyes of hers... and yet, at the same time, Jet couldn't help but feel as though he knew his opponent. If he didn't know any better, he would swear that she was a more sadistic and evil version of Wave.

"Are you going to stand there all night and stare at her?" Rouge called out. "Because we sure aren't. Now hurry up and get over here!"

Jet sighed and picked up his fans. He took one last look at the swallow and went to get his board.

_'Wherever you are, Wave, hang tight. You'll be out of here in no time!'_ he thought.

* * *

Sonic blinked as he transitioned from dreaming into waking. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine that he was waking up in his bed at home, but the blue hedgehog couldn't fool himself. He knew that he'd been captured by Eggman, and that his super speed was as good as useless at this point in time. The pain in his leg, which had been reduced to a dull throb during his sleep, was a constant reminder of his predicament. 

_'Man, I sure hope the others are okay,'_ Sonic thought, yawning. As far as he knew, the only people that had been captured were Amy, Wave, Shadow, and himself-- and he hoped it would stay that way.

Sonic's ears pricked as they picked up the sound of footsteps coming down the hall, distracting him from his thoughts.

"Who's there?" he asked, opening his eyes again. He tried to turn over to see, but a fresh burst of pain shot through his broken leg. He yelped, quickly returning to his original position. "Shadow, is that you?"

The only reply he received was the footsteps stopping. After waiting a couple of seconds to get over the worst of pain, Sonic sighed. For all the time that he'd known Shadow, the ebony hedgehog had never been much of a talker.

"What time is it, Shad? Geez... must be really late. What is it, past midnight or something?" Sonic asked. When he was met with more silence, he continued. "Yeah. But you probably don't care about the time. You seemed pretty curious earlier about why Amy's acting all different."

Still there was no reply, just expectant silence. Sonic was unable to comprehend how Shadow's messages could get across so easily with a lack of words. The blue hedgehog stifled another yawn, wanting nothing more at that moment than to go back to sleep.

"It's a long story, and I really don't want to go into details right now, so I'll just give you the short version. When I started going out with another friend of mine about a year ago, Amy found out a bit sooner than I hoped, and she started avoiding us. I don't want to let it bother me, but... geez, something like that can't always be ignored. You're the expert on grudges, so tell me... can you really hold a grudge forever?" he asked. "I never wanted Amy to get hurt. I mean, she's like a sister I never had. It's not that I_don't_ care about her, it's just..."

Sonic tried to think of a good way to finish his statement, but was unsuccessful in doing so. Drowsiness was plaguing him, so if Shadow wanted a full answer, then he would have to wait until morning.

"Well, anyway, now you know." The hedgehog closed his eyes again and tried to get back to sleep.

Amy was silently thankful that Sonic hadn't turned over to see who he was talking to. She bit her lip and slowly walked back to her own bed.

'_He thinks I'm holding a grudge against him? That's not true! It's not like I've been personally trying to kill him or anything,'_ Amy thought as she sat down. The memory of betraying his location to Eggman returned, and she felt guilt eating away at her insides._'Well, there was that. But I wasn't thinking clearly. If he thinks of me like a sister, why didn't he just tell me?'_ This thought was contradicted by Amy's recollections of the event she had dubbed as the worst day of her life. She sighed in irritation, reluctant to accept that there was no longer a good reason to continue avoiding Sonic and Blaze. It was difficult to let go of things she had been stewing over for so long.

Amy glanced at the other hedgehog occupying her bed, grateful to see that Shadow had finally drifted off to sleep. If he had been awake, then this situation would have been very awkward-- much like the other situations that had taken place within the past couple of hours. Amy looked away from him as she remembered the strange look she had been given during their meal.

_'Who knows?'_ she thought. _'Maybe I've earned enough of Shadow's trust by now to be considered his friend. That would do him some good-- any time I've seen him, he was always alone. He's got to lighten up a bit. But... he doesn't really seem like the kind to make friends easily...'_

"I need to sleep on it," Amy whispered, laying back down on the bed. After a second's thought, she adjusted her position, moving closer to Shadow.

* * *

"Quit squirming, Knucklehead, unless you just want to walk around with a bleeding limb!" Rouge growled, struggling to tie a white handkerchief to the echidna's bleeding arm. 

Knuckles was doing his best to resist. "Stop trying strangle my arm first!"

The group had been walking for some time, and Knuckles' arm was still bleeding from the earlier fight. The blood flow had lightened considerably, and hardly stood out against his red fur. However, the blood was still dripping off of his arm, creating a visible scarlet trail on the floor.

"Come on! If any patrolling guards find the path you made, we may as well just march right up to Eggman and say, 'We're in your base, come and stop us'!" Rouge said. "Besides, some of those guards might be worse than that bird girl back at the hangar. So shut up and take it like a man!"

Knuckles looked as though he was going to retort, but opted instead to sigh irritably and let Rouge tie the makeshift bandage onto his arm. He squeezed his eyes shut and grunted in pain when the handkerchief was pulled into an exceptionally tight knot. Rouge smiled and dusted her hands. "There. That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Thanks... I guess," he said. Knuckles tried to wipe the remaining blood off of his arm, only to gain newer red stains on his glove. His arm still stung, but at least it wasn't dripping any more blood. He turned and walked back towards the group, followed by Rouge. At least they had stopped at a fork in the halls, so whatever bloody trail there already was didn't give too much away about their location.

"Both hallways from here look exactly the same," Cream said. "Blaze, didn't you say that you could find the other Emeralds?"

Blaze hesitated for a moment, then brought out the white Sol Emerald that she had carried in her coat. Her calm expression was reflected in the gem. "Yes. The Sol Emeralds are sensitive to each other's presence, so I should be able to find where the others are using this one."

The cat closed her eyes, her concentration completely focused on the Sol Emerald in her hand. She could feel its warmth, a result from the energy within it that waited to be released. Blaze tapped into this energy, requesting but one thing.

_'Please, lead me to other Emeralds.'_

The Sol Emerald complied, gleaming brightly at first as it was pointed at the left hallway. Blaze moved it towards the right, and its glow diminished.

"The emerald's glow is stronger at this hall," Tails said, pointing at the left hallway. "It's safer to assume the other emeralds are down there, so let's try there. Blaze, you lead, okay?"

Blaze nodded and began to walk in front of the group, still holding the gleaming emerald. No further conversation was passed as they all walked down the lengthy corridor, guided only by prayers and the glow of the Sol Emerald. After about a minute of walking, the hallway diverged into a left and right pathway, each curving off around a bend. Blaze pointed the emerald at each of the halls, but there was no visible difference in the glow.

"It seems that both halls lead to the other Sol Emeralds, wherever they may be," she said, frowning at the emerald. "Since either way goes, we should probably split up to cover more ground. But--"

"Divide and conquer? Well, that's easy!" Jet interrupted. "Just put three in each group and we're good to go!"

"But it's not that simple," Blaze said. "We have seven people here, so there'd be one left over."

"Ya think I can't count, furball? The odd one out can pick whichever group they want."

"_What_ did you just call me?"

"Look, enough!" Tails shouted, casting a quick look at Blaze. While the cat was visibly offended by Jet's remark, it was also clear that she did not wish to fight him. "Arguing like this isn't going to get us anywhere, so we'll have to do this in an orderly fashion. Okay?"

Everybody else mumbled their agreement, while Jet crossed his arms in defiance and turned to look at the wall. He was used to being the boss, so having somebody else calling the shots was grating on his nerves. Not to mention that it was very late, and the lack of sleep was making him more irritable than usual.

"Jet's idea of the three-person teams was a good one. But like Blaze said, we have an odd number of people here," Tails began. "To make it fair, I'll be the odd one out, and everyone else can pick their teams. Jet, Blaze, since you two aren't on the best terms right now, you'll be in seperate groups."

Blaze nodded in understanding while Jet merely scoffed. Before Tails could speak further, Storm walked over to Jet's side. The hawk didn't acknowledge him, instead continuing to bore a hole in the wall with his glare.

"I'm sticking with Boss, and that's that," Storm declared.

Knuckles moved next to Blaze. "I'm not hanging around that meathead or his boss."

"I'll go with Blaze, too," Cream said, joining Knuckles.

Rouge shrugged and walked over to join the two Babylon Rogues. "Guess that puts me with these guys."

Tails smiled, impressed at how quickly the groups had formed. "This works perfectly. I'll go with Blaze's group down the left hall. You guys take the right hall. Everyone's Com-Links are on, right?"

Five resounding '_beep_'sanswered his question. Tails checked his own Com-Link, and then looked over at Jet, who was still grousing. The hawk met his eyes and snorted derisively.

"Whaddya want, Prower?" Jet asked. "My wristwatch is on, if that's what you're wondering!"

"It's not a wristwatch, it's a Com-Link. And you know that you'll have to take Rouge and Storm down the other hall, right?" Tails asked.

"I know, I know, _I know_! Sheesh! I'm not deaf!" Jet snapped.

He started down the right hall in a huff. Storm and Rouge exchanged a glance and followed him, carrying their Extreme Gears under their arms. Tails looked at Blaze, Cream, and Knuckles, and motioned for them to follow him down the opposite hall.

* * *

The four walked down the empty corridor, with only the sounds of their footsteps and the buzzing of the overhead electric lights breaking the silence. Blaze kept her gaze on the Sol Emerald, her tail flicking in apprehension as she walked. While she had never attempted to infiltrate Eggman Nega's base back in her own world, it would have made sense if its halls were guarded by patrolling robots. The lack of guards in this base simply didn't seem right. Granted, it was very late, but robots were unaffected by time. 

After what seemed like an eternity, the curved corridor straightened out. At the end of the hall was a scratched-up, silvery metal door. Mounted on the wall a few inches to the right was a small black scanner with a red LED on top.

"End of the road?" Knuckles asked through a yawn as he rubbed his eyes.

"Not quite," Tails said. He walked up to the door, then took a look at the red card key in his hand. "I just hope this card key isn't for just one door." With that, he swiped the card through the scanner. Immediately, the LED turned green, and the door slid open with a whoosh. Tails walked in first, followed by Blaze, Cream, and Knuckles. The sound of the door sliding shut was lost amongst their collective gasp.

The first thing their gaze was drawn to was the dimly glowing Master Emerald, held by three golden "claws" in the center of the room. Electricity was crackling from the three "claws" into a tangle of colored wires plugged into their bases. The blue wires were plugged into Metal Sonic, who was standing against the back wall. His head was slumped forward and his visual components did not have their regular red glow, indicating that he was shut off. Beside him was a deactivated Metal Knuckles with a couple of red wires in his back. Next to the robotic echidna was a door identical to the one they had just entered, and further along the wall were three replicas of Shadow, all of whom had their eyes shut, their heads slumped forward, and grey wires trailing into the backs of their heads.

"Those robots look exactly like Mister Shadow! It's like they're clones!" Cream exclaimed, going towards one of the Shadow androids.

Blaze followed the doe, taking care to not touch any of the wires on the ground. The Sol Emerald gleamed brightly in her hand as she walked past the Master Emerald. Blaze was confused at first, having believed the Sol Emerald was leading them toward the other Emeralds, not the Master Emerald. A four-year-old memory returned to her, and she could hear Eggman speaking.

_"In close proximity, these emeralds call out to each other..."_

"The Master Emerald is tied to the Chaos Emeralds, so I suppose that explains why the Sol Emerald is reacting," she said to herself, tucking the white emerald back into her coat's inside pocket.

"I can't believe this!" Knuckles growled, carelessly tossing the Red Rock off to the side and running over to the Master Emerald. He tried to pull it from the claws, but the gem briefly flashed a bright blue, and his hands were repelled from its surface. "What did they do to the Master Emerald?"

Tails walked up behind him. "Judging from the fact that the robots are shut off, I think that they're recharging their batteries. The wires are connected to this, so it'd be a good guess that the Master Emerald is charging them up with its own energy-- with Chaos Energy."

"It was hard enough fighting them on regular energy," Knuckles said, casting a look at the still deactivated Metal Knuckles. "If these things were powered by the Master Emerald, they'd be unbeatable!"

"That won't help matters any. We need to stop this charging as soon as possible," Blaze said. "Tails, do robots wake up when they're unplugged?"

Tails thought hard for a few seconds, his twin tails swishing idly behind him. "Since they're already deactivated, they shouldn't respond... unless Dr. Robotnik's programmed them with an auto-awakening feature so he doesn't have to turn them on manually."

"We're just going to have to take that risk, then," Knuckles said. "We can't let them use the Master Emerald like this!"

Cream had been listening to the conversation while she was examining the robots. She looked at Metal Sonic, who had three blue wires plugged into his chest. She hesitantly placed her left hand on his shoulder for support and wrapped her other hand around all of the wires. Her eyes squeezed shut and her heart pounding, Cream yanked the wires out with as much force as she could muster.

She waited one second, two seconds, three seconds. There was no mechanical voice, no robotic claws shoving her to the floor, or any other sign that she was going to be attacked. She opened her eyes cautiously, before heaving a relieved sigh. Metal Sonic had not awakened. Feeling more confident, Cream made her way towards Metal Knuckles.

Blaze watched as Cream repositioned Metal Knuckles to pull out his wires, then turned her attention to the unplugged Metal Sonic. "It seems the robots don't wake up when they're unplugged, Tails. Cream's taking care of them right now."

"Really? That works to our advantage," Tails said, unable to help smiling a bit as Cream did her work. He turned to Knuckles, who was trying again to remove the Master Emerald without any success. "Knuckles, I think you'll have to wait until all of the robots are unplugged before the Master Emerald will come out."

Knuckles swore and pounded his fist on the top of the Master Emerald, which promptly deflected his demonstration of irritation.

"We need to tell the others about this room," Tails said. Before he could open the line of communication, a tapping sound came from the door closest to the androids, which made Cream jump and squeak with surprise. Tails quickly spoke into the Com-Link. "Rouge? Jet? Storm?"

"_We're all still here,_" came Rouge's voice from the Com-Link. "_We've reached a door, but we don't have the card key, so it seems we'll be trying to break it down. Where are you?_"

"We're in a room with two doors, the Master Emerald, and a bunch of robots," Tails said. "Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles are among them, but you'll never believe what else is in here with them..."

As Tails spoke, he was unaware that he was being watched by a pair of blank, black eyes, whose owner was obscured from view by a pile of discarded wires, scrap metal, and the Red Rock...

* * *

Jet, Storm, and Rouge had been walking down the hallway for what felt like hours, but in reality had only been a few minutes. None of the three had managed to engage in any conversation. Rouge had tried previously, but had been met with silence from Storm and an angry "harrumph!" from Jet. The lack of voices was starting to drive the bat crazy. 

_'I almost wish Knucklehead was here just so there'd be some conversation going on,'_ Rouge thought, chuckling as she envisioned another argument taking place between them.

"What're you laughing at?" Jet snapped, not turning to face Rouge.

"I was just thinking about something funny that always happens to a friend of mine," she replied coolly. "Why? Did you think I was laughing at _you_?"

The hawk didn't reply, instead grumbling irritably under his breath. No more words passed between them until the bend straightened out, leading them straight to a silver metal door with a card key scanner mounted on the wall nearby.

"Well, isn't this just peachy?" Jet asked, throwing his board on the ground in frustration. The clatter was loud, but no guards came running. "We finally reach a door, but we don't have the key! Of course, Mister Prower was just fine with that, it seems. Thanks for nothing, you worthless little--"

"Uh... Boss?" Storm asked, interrupting the hawk's rant. "Haven't you said that there's more than one way to open a door?"

Jet looked as though he were going to throw a dagger at Storm for suggesting such a thing, but reconsidered. He raised a hand, tapping one of his temples with a finger. "Hmm. Well, now... that's true. I did say that, didn't I?"

He walked over to the door, examining it so closely that his beak almost touched the metal. After a couple of seconds, Jet motioned for Storm to come over. The albatross hurried over, looking expectantly at his boss.

"Well, Storm? How about it?" Jet asked. "I think you'd be able to break this baby down with a good, solid whack."

Storm rapped the door a few times with his knuckles as a test, then frowned. "I swear I just heard something from the other side."

"_Rouge? Jet? Storm?_" Tails' voice asked from the Com-Links.

"We're all still here," Rouge replied. She had been standing off to the side the entire time. "We're reached a door, but we don't have the card key, so it seems we'll be trying to break it down. Where are you?"

"_We're in a room with two doors, the Master Emerald, and a bunch of robots. Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles are among them, but you'll never believe what else is in here with them-- there's three Shadow androids!_"

Rouge gasped with shock. The last time she had seen any Shadow androids was at the end of Metal Sonic's world-domination plan. But Omega had destroyed the other Shadow androids, hadn't he? Unless Eggman had built more during his four-year absence...

"Are you sure they're... androids?" Rouge asked hesitantly.

"_Well, let's see,_" Knuckles said, sounding none too happy."_They all look exactly like Shadow, they all have a bunch of wires coming out of them, they're being charged by the Master Emerald, so yeah, I'd say they're probably androids._"

Jet and Storm exchanged a bewildered look as Rouge trembled. The bat's eyes suddenly widened, as though she was remembering something unpleasant.

"D-Do any of them have--" she began, but was interrupted by a loud thud and a scream from the adjacent room. Startled, Storm and Jet backed away from the door.

"Knuckles! Tails! What's going on?" Rouge asked, trying to ignore the fact that the scream had sounded a lot like Cream's voice.

No answer came from the other party. The sounds of running, metal hitting the ground, and yelling could be heard through the door.

"C'mon, Storm! We gotta get in there!" Jet shouted, pointing at the door. Storm nodded, backing up from the door to get a running start.

* * *

Tails had been listening to Rouge's question when something wide and flat had hit him from behind, sending him pummeling to the floor. He had only managed to get onto his knees before being beaten back down again with the same weapon. He looked up quickly to see Cream, who had been about to unplug the last Shadow android, ducking to avoid a glowing, fist-sized scrap of metal that was flying towards her. She screamed shrilly, unable to repress her fear. 

"It can't be!" Tails said, getting to his feet and turning around as fast as he could. Hovering a few feet away from him, its blank eyes boring into him, was the Tails Doll. The gem attached to its forehead was gleaming brightly, and many pieces of scrap metal were floating around it, surrounded by a red glow. Tails could hear Rouge yelling from his Com-Link, but her words were faint.

Knuckles and Blaze were already running towards the Tails Doll, but the plush was ready. Without warning, the two were pummeled by flying metal. One piece of metal landed right at Blaze's feet, tripping her. She had to roll over quickly to avoid being sliced to ribbons. Even then, she could feel the sharper edges of the pieces cutting her, just barely missing her as she jumped back onto her feet.

"Why don't you fight me fist-to-fist?" Knuckles yelled, pushing ahead despite the fact that the metal was cutting him up and hitting him hard with the flat sides. "Or are you just too weak!"

If the Tails Doll had any consciousness, it showed itself then. It slowly turned its gaze on Knuckles, and all of the flying projectiles changed from their random courses. Before he knew it, he was the sole target of several dozen sharp edges, closing in rapidly from all angles. Within seconds, he would be ripped open.

"KNUCKLES!" Tails shouted.

Before the echidna could meet his grisly fate, however, the Tails Doll was hit square-on with a spinning wrench, courtesy of Cream. The scrap metal skewed off in various directions, leaving only a few projectiles to hit their mark. Knuckles roared in pain as the metal opened new cuts on his arms and legs. Blaze and Tails had to dodge the glowing pieces that headed their way, still getting cut in the process. Cream quickly grabbed another wrench that had been laying on the floor, and she chucked it towards the Tails Doll. The malevolent marionette turned to face her, just as the door flew out of its frame. Storm charged in immediately, his entrance followed quickly by Jet and Rouge.

The Tails Doll paid no heed to the new foes that had just entered the room, instead focusing on Cream. For the first time in the battle, it moved from its position, its plush limbs dangling uselessly as it floated towards the rabbit. Some of the wires around Cream's feet gained a red glow and wrapped themselves tightly around her ankles. She screamed and struggled to break free as the Tails Doll drew closer.

Blood was roaring in Tails' ears, and adrenaline surged through him as he moved faster than he ever had in his life. His twin tails spun rapidly as he flew towards the Tails Doll. He snatched it from its path and grabbed the red gemstone, hoping that it would provide the moment's distraction needed as it had before. His hopes were fulfilled as the flying metal dropped to the ground and the wires around Cream's legs lost their glow. The doe quickly pulled herself out of the bundle and ran towards Blaze. Tails, still enraged, kept a tight hold on his copy even as he hit the ground with a loud thud, arms wrapped tightly around it. The Tails Doll jerked around wildly in his unyielding grasp, its entire body glowing red.

"Tails!" Cream shouted worriedly. "Let go of that thing before it hurts to you!"

"But that doll is going to hurt all of us if he lets it go!" Blaze said quickly. "The only reason he was able to grab it in the first place was because it was focused on you."

"Then what are we standing around for?" Rouge demanded, running over towards the two struggling forms. "We need to beat this possessed voodoo doll before it can do anything else! Come on!"

Tails' strength was quickly being drained, and the Tails Doll was showing no sign of stopping its struggles. He knew that the moment he let go, the doll would win. In a last-ditch effort to keep it from escaping, he bit down on one of the plush ears. In the back of his mind, though, he couldn't help but think there was something out of place. The Tails Doll was far stronger than it had been when he had last fought it, and its body felt more solid than most stuffed toys. It was almost as if there was something inside of the doll, enhancing the strength its red gem already gave it...

With a jolt, Tails realized what had to be done. Without letting go of the Tails Doll's ear, he managed to growl at the group surrounding him, "Get the gem!"

Everybody started grabbing for the red diamond. The violent thrashing of the Tails Doll made it difficult, but it was only a matter of seconds before somebody-- in this case, Storm-- managed to snag it. The Tails Doll, stunned once more, briefly stopped in its struggles. Without waiting any further, Storm yanked the gem as hard as he could-- and stumbled backwards with a yelp of surprise as it snapped off of the doll.

Stripped of the source of its consciousness, the Tails Doll gave one last twitch as its red glow vanished. Panting heavily, Tails sat up and looked down at the now limp doll in his arms. Before he could say or do anything, the stitches connecting the white patch to its stomach popped open one by one until the plush circle fell off, revealing a red Chaos Emerald. A collective gasp issued from the group.

Tails removed the precious emerald and gazed at it. "I knew something else was powering the Tails Doll... but a Chaos Emerald, of all things..."

A groan of pain drew everyone's attention away from Tails. Knuckles was sprawled face-first on the ground by the Master Emerald, bloodied metal shards scattered around him. Cream gasped and clutched Blaze's arm tightly. Rouge sprinted over to Knuckles, kneeling next to him and examining his newest cuts. None of them seemed as deep as the one he had received back at the hangar, but he had been badly cut up nonetheless.

"Stop getting hurt, Knucklehead," Rouge muttered, half-sarcastically. She removed the handkerchief she had tied on his arm earlier and starting to dab at some of the heavier cuts. "I only have one handkerchief."

Knuckles' only reply was a small grunt. The pain stinging all over his body and the buzzing in his ears was almost enough to make him cry, but he managed to suppress the urge. With a lack of adrenaline in his system to keep him awake, Knuckles quickly succumbed to sleep in the spot he had fallen. All the while, Rouge continued trying to curb the bleeding.

"Will Mister Knuckles be alright, Blaze?" Cream asked, biting her lip. She still hadn't let go of Blaze's arm.

"Knuckles will be alright. He can make it," Blaze said, silently hoping that what she said was true.

If Jet felt any remorse for Knuckles, he chose not to show it. He walked away from the group and settled himself into the nearest corner, producing an enormous yawn as he did so. "I'm bushed. Let's just pick this up in the morning." With that statement, Jet ruffled up his feathers a little bit and closed his eyes.

"Jet does have a point. It's pretty late, and we've already managed to find the Master Emerald," Tails said, unable to stifle a yawn of his own. "We'll rest up here for tonight, and plan more tomorrow. Blaze, Storm, Rouge, would any of you guys mind keeping watch for a bit?"

Blaze, who had already seated herself on the floor in a cross-legged position, looked at Tails. Her body and mind were crying for rest, but she knew that the group would be vulnerable to attack if all of them were to be asleep. The risk of attack was fairly high, since Storm had knocked down one door. She reluctantly nodded, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. Tails smiled drowsily at her, and then shut his eyes. Cream laid down between Blaze and Tails, yawned, and quickly nodded off. Storm sighed loudly and sat down where he was, but stayed awake.

"Wherever Sonic may be in this base, I hope he's not in too much trouble," Blaze said aloud, but not directing it at anybody in particular. "Although she may not be wishing the same for myself, I hope Amy is fine, too."

She fought back a yawn and then faced Storm. Blaze avoided looking at his eyes even as she addressed him. "Perhaps if we engage in conversation, it will be easier to stay up on watch."

A slight pause followed before Storm nodded. He might not have been as physically exhausted as the others, but he rarely remained awake this late. With any luck, talking would help keep him up, too.

"So then... tell me about this Wave that you and Jet are looking for. What's she like?" Blaze asked. She could already assume that the female in question was a bird of some sort.

"Wave? Well, uh... she's a bossy know-it-all, and she's always messing around with some crazy experiment," Storm began, making no effort to hide his disdain. "But she knows more about the Gears than me or Jet do, so whenever they break, she fixes them."

"A mechanic? Since you and Jet seem to ride those boards of yours a lot, she must be an important person to have around," Blaze said.

"Yeah, well, don't let her hear you say that. Her ego's bigger than this base."

"The two of you don't get along well, do you?"

"She's like a sister, annoying but still there."

"So you don't like her... but at the same time, you tolerate her?"

"Pretty much. I don't know how Jet can stand her sometimes, but we do need her and all. He got really worked up when she didn't come back this morning."

"Forgive me, but you seemed more worked up than Jet did."

Storm turned away from Blaze, instead looking at the sleeping hawk in the corner. "Whenever Jet gets worked up over something, I get all worked up, too. Whenever he's worked up, he's grumpy, and whenever he's grumpy, he's worried."

_'Is that so? He's just been really worried all day, then?'_' Blaze thought cruelly, unimpressed with the hawk's behavior. Granted, he did not know of Blaze's status as royalty (and she preferred to not have any special treatment because of that fact anyways), but he simply had not shown respect for anybody today. To her, it was a wonder that Sonic had even offered to help him after being subject to Jet's rudeness.

Blaze's anger towards Jet faded away, replaced by concern for Sonic. She knew that the hedgehog was tough to bring down, and she hoped that he had already escaped from his prison. With calmer thoughts in mind and drowsiness already present, Blaze's eyelids slowly shut as she nodded off, remaining in her seated position. Storm yawned loudly and laid down on his back, looking over once more at Jet before ruffling up his chest feathers a bit and closing his own eyes.

Rouge unsuccessfully tried to rub the forming sleep out of her eyes as she lazily dabbed at a cut on Knuckles' back that had long since stopped bleeding. Her wings flapped absently, her right wing stinging dully from the injury attained earlier in the day. She struggled to remain awake, but her gaze was unfocused and her mind was wandering. Finally, Rouge laid on her side next to Knuckles, the bloodied handkerchief falling out of her hand. She yawned and closed her eyes, the faint whirring of an android still charging its batteries lulling her to sleep.


End file.
